Media Release – Bob Brown Foundation, 8 September 2025
Styx Forest Sentinel launched as logging looms in forests of giants
Bob Brown Foundation has today escalated its forest defence campaign across the island of Lutruwita / Tasmania with a new tree sit camp in the Styx Valley, a protest in the Central Highlands and the ongoing Takayna blockade that has been in place for almost a month.
The Styx Forest Sentinel, with Dr Lisa Searle occupying a tree sit in a 60 metre eucalyptus, is in place as forests are imminently threatened by logging.
“I am currently occupying a treesit platform, 40 metres high in a giant eucalyptus in the Styx Valley of the Giants, in a precious forest imminently threatened by logging.
“We are expecting to see machines rolling in here any day, but remain steadfast to defend it from destruction.
In 2024, Bob Brown and Palawa elder Jim Everett were arrested in this very forest, and now Forestry Tasmania want to return to destroy what is left. We will be here when they arrive, occupying the trees and the forest and making sure that no more trees are destroyed,” said Searle, from the Styx Forest Sentinel.
Dr Lisa Searle’s on a treesit platform, 40 metres high in a giant Eucalyptus in the Styx Valley
Elsewhere in Tasmania, this morning in the Central Highlands, forest defenders were evicted from ancient Central Highlands forests by Tasmania Police after protesting the logging of ancient forests.
“High in the Central Highlands in a forest that is home to Tasmanian devils, spotted tailed quolls, swift parrots, masked owls and eagles, Forestry Tasmania’s grim reaper, a gruesome spectre in a black cape and bearing bloody chainsaws, lead a procession of threatened wildlife to their untimely death inside active logging coupe called CZ030A by the destroyers,” said Colette Harmsen from the Central Highlands protest.
“We have the highest mammal extinction rate on the planet!
Yet our precious wildlife face extinction every day due to habitat loss from logging and mining,” said Harmsen.
Premier Rockliff must rescue ancient forests, rainforests and wildlife-rich native forests from logging and mining destruction.
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