1080 Poison in Tasmania & 1080 Watch
TASMANIAN CONSERVATION TRUST
Currently around 80 tonnes of carrot bait impregnated with
1080 poison is laid in Tasmania annually to kill wallabies
and possums: enough to kill about half a million creatures
of many different species. Tens
of thousands of animals suffer a protracted and distressing
death simply to maximise profits for forestry
companies and a small percentage of farmers and graziers.
The public has no recourse to stop a 1080 drop in their
neighbourhood despite the fact that many pet dogs are killed
every year by secondary poisoning. Secrecy surrounds the
use of 1080 and its administration by the Tasmanian government.
There is no public record of who uses 1080 or where it is
laid. ....
MORE...... |
Governor of Tasmania Richard Butler,
has "No Recollection".
29 December 2003
....."The aim was to convince the public that
Iraq was a far greater threat than it actually was,"
Mr Ritter said last week. Mr Ritter said he obtained
approval to co-operate from Richard Butler, then executive
chairman of the UN Special Commission on Iraq Disarmament.
Mr Butler, now Governor of Tasmania, said yesterday
that he had no recollection of this. He said he would
not have approved any operations falling outside his
disarmament mandate......
THE
AUSTRALIAN.... |
| THE
UPGRADE.... |
| THE
VENDETTA.... |
|
Tassie water warning.
28 December 2003
SUPPLIES of fresh water will become a major issue
for Tasmanians, a leading scientist says. Freshwater
systems consultant Peter Davies says increasing demand
on fresh water for domestic and agricultural use could
outstrip resources. "This is a hot issue and
it's going to have to be addressed," Dr Davies
said. Dry areas, like the Tasmanian midlands and East
Coast, would feel the pinch first, he said. "Some
rivers are already stuffed," he said........ |
| SUNDAY
TASMANIAN..... |
| SEE ALSO.... |
|
WATER WARNING - Dr. Leaman |
| THE
PRETENDER STATE |
| TYENNA
RIVER CONTAMINATION |
| ANCIENT
FOREST |
|
Cray stream fury at Calder River.
28 December 2003
PRIME habitat for a rare and threatened species has been
destroyed by forestry, says Tasmanian cray expert Todd Walsh.
More than 250 metres of the Calder River behind Wynyard
on the North-West Coast has been reduced to a muddy mess
by loggers. Mr Walsh said the destruction would have killed
giant Tasmanian freshwater crayfish, which are listed as
vulnerable on state and federal threatened species lists.
He said it appeared no effort was made to contact authorities
expert on crayfish and no attempts were made to mitigate
the effects on the local population. ......
SUNDAY
TASMANIAN..... |
|
|
The Greens machine.
27 December 2003
.... The Greens doubled their vote at the last federal election
in 2001, albeit off a low base. Since then, their national
membership has doubled as well. Seventeen of them have been
elected to various parliaments. Federally, there are Brown
and Kerry Nettle in the Senate, and the breakthrough figure
of Michael Organ in the House of Representatives. Greens
also sit in the legislatures of Tasmania, Western Australia,
NSW and the ACT; Melbourne's Yarra City Council has a Greens
mayor........ came when Labor abandoned an agreed limit
to the woodchipping of native forests.....
THE
AUSTRALIAN.... |
World's largest Christmas tree.
Tuesday 23 December 2003
AUSTRALIA / Styx Valley
The world's tallest Christmas Tree isn't on the White House
lawn or in Trafalgar Square this year: it's in the Styx
Valley, a tract of ancient forest in Tasmania. It's a living,
84 meter (276 foot) Eucalyptus tree, currently home to a
half dozen activists who for more than a month have lived
in its heights, protecting it from being cut down ......
You can wish the activists a happy holiday via their weblog,
where you can join their efforts to stop these magnificent
forests from being turned into woodchips by adding
your voice to the more than
5,000 cyberaction emails that have been sent to buyers from
over 91 countries, urging them not to source woodchips from
Tasmanian ancient forests..... and Gunns Ltd.......
VISIT GREENPEACE AT THE WORLD'S LARGEST CHRISTMAS TREE......
|
Damage inspected at Calder River.
23 Dec 03
DAMAGE to the Calder River allegedly caused by a logging
operation was investigated yesterday and concerns were raised
that the operation had destroyed a freshwater lobster habitat.
THE
ADVOCATE...
[MORE
MONOCULTURE PINE FORESTRY BLOW OVERS]
[GIANT
FRESHWATER LOBSTER (Astacopsis gouldi) Fact Sheet]
[DELAYS
KILL CRAYS in FORESTRY DEADLOCK]
[VISITING
the GIANT TASMANIAN FRESHWATER LOBSTER Todd Walsh Eco
Tours] |
Environmental Vandalism at Calder River
near Wynyard.
22 Dec 03
Waratah-Wynyard Deputy Mayor Kevin Hyland said a 250-metre
section of the Calder River was a site of "complete
devastation" where the extraction of pines that had
blown into and across the river after a cable-logging operation
had severely damaged the river bank. Their machinery looks
like it's been crossing the river and there's a lot of rubbish
in the river.
THE
ADVOCATE... |
Balancing the green and gold: the impact
of environmental pressure
19 Dec 03
Environmentalists are about to turn the heat a notch higher
in their battle against Tasmanian timber and logging group
Gunns.
The Wilderness Society this year recruited the ever-rambunctious
Greenpeace, a group with strong international connections
and a Barnum-like flair for attracting publicity. .....
MELBOURNE
AGE... |
Shadow over the future of speciality timber.
Friday 19/12/2003
Tasmania's timber workers for forests have put out for public
comment a proposal [HERE]
they call a "blue print for a sustainable speciality
timber industry". Timber
workers for forests are proposing a Speciality Timber
Commission, created under an act of parliament, to manage
12 percent of Tasmanian state forests rich in special timbers
including leatherwood, myrtle, sassafrass, blackwood and
celery top pine. Spokesman Graham Green says...
ABC
RURAL.... |
|
ITEMS FROM SWITZERLAND
• NeoLiberalism and Forestry.
ENGLSH
TRANSLATION (by FreeTranslation.com)
...Giant trees lost its Kosenamen.
Forestry Tasmania (s example Tasmanien, left above) leads
at place of the previously common names for special trees,
as well as el Grande, Gothmog, Mount Tree, Styx Big Tree,
newly only the scientific names on. s. HERALD SUN...,...
Elevated type MERCURY.... and further forest accidents
under http://www.discover-tasmania.com/news/index.html
• THE
ORIGINAL IN GERMAN....
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
• Original-forest annihilation in Tasmania through
neoliberal forest economy.
ENGLSH
TRANSLATION (by FreeTranslation.com)
... Bill Manning was audi gate of
the Tasmanian Forestry Practices Board, therefore a forest
expert with long-time experience. It complained the forest
destruction through manifold offences against the legal
guidelines judicially at - what (naturally ...) led to
its release. Here statements out of its presentation:
• THE
ORIGINAL IN GERMAN....
|
Burr backs old-growth clearfelling ban.
19 Dec 03
A former Tasmanian member of federal Parliament, Max Burr,
says he supports an end to old-growth clearfelling. Mr Burr
says Young Liberals president Donna Powell is to be congratulated
for yesterday calling for the logging practice to be stopped.
The Member for Bass, Liberal backbencher Peter Gutwein,
and former Liberal leader Bob Cheek have also called for
old-growth clearfelling to end. Mr Burr, who was member
for Lyons for 18 years, says forestry practices need to
be updated to reflect modern values. "I don't support
the present policies that are being pursued with the clearfelling
of old-growth forests," he said. "I believe that
there are far more values that have not yet been identified
with our forests and with our forestry practices and those
broader factors that run well beyond economic values need
to be recognised as part of the values of our forests."
Opposition leader Rene Hidding says the Regional Forest
Agreement is here to stay. Mr Hidding says Mr Burr has not
been a member of the Liberal Party for 10 years and has
no status when it comes to official party policy.
ABC
NEWS ONLINE.... |
Libs coy on rebel forest call.
19 Dec 03
The Liberal Party has played down comments by Young Liberal
president Donna Powell over forest practices, saying they
were not part of official policy. Ms Powell was reported
as saying there ought to be a move out of old-growth forests,
a comment which put her at odds with party hierarchy but
in line with comments from two controversial Liberals, former
leader Bob Cheek and demoted back-bencher Peter Gutwein.
HOBART
MERCURY.... |
Giant Xmas tree lights up outcry.
Thursday 18 December 2003
Conservationists in Australia yesterday lit up what they
say is the world's tallest living Christmas tree. The 84m
Eucalyptus regnans is located in Tasmania's Styx forest
near Hobart.
THE
STAR - SOUTH AFRICA.... |
Has WA Labor's Save Old Growth policy
been a disaster for the state?
18 December 2003
A review by Dr. Geoff Couser of Doctors for Forests, which
finds Paul
Lennon of the Tasmanian Government to be...... well
read for yourself. Ceasing Old Growth Logging in West Australia
got Geoff Gallop elected.
TASMANIAN
TIMES.... |
Der Tasmanische Teufel geht durch die
Hölle
(The Tasmanian Devil Goes Through Hell)
Written by Martin Feldmann, Cockle Creek, Tasmania.
A mysterious epidemic is running rampant among Australia's
marsupials / Research program is to help contain the illness.
..... government-promoted forestry industry could also be
responsible for the outbreak of the disease;
• GERMAN article
in Frankfurter Rundschau of 16 Dec 2003
• ENGLISH translation HERE... |
Dr David Suzuki offers his support to
the Styx campaign.
16 December 2003
"Those of you fighting to preserve the great forests
of Tasmania are warriors fighting to preserve a future for
our children and grandchildren. As a father and grandfather,
I salute you and give thanks to what you are doing."
All over the planet, most of the large forest ecosystems
have been invaded by human beings. We live with the arrogant
notion that we are so clever, we understand how forests
work and can cut them down and attempt to manage them. Of
course, what the forest industry calls a second growth "forest"
is in fact not a forest at all but a plantation that attempts
to mimic an agricultural crop. Only time and nature are
able to grow a forest but we humans are too impatient, our
economic system demands returns now.
MORE....
|
Spare a thought for
/ take a visit to, those risking their lives.
16 Dec 03 |
|
•
|
"We have been here for one month
but the tree has been here for four hundred years....." |
|
•
|
"I'm writing another weblog
to distract myself from the wind, which is so strong
now it's scary - even Adam looks slightly nervous!
The tents are flapping like crazy and it's so loud
I doubt I could hear someone shouting from the bottom
of the tree......" |
|
•
|
"Hi everybody out there in cyberland.
It's the first day of our second month since the launch
day, and it feels like we haven't gotten any closer
to summer. It's so cold at the moment I'm scared to
get out of my sleeping bag....." |
|
|
|
Giant trees lose their nicknames.
15 Dec 03
TASMANIA'S giant trees have been officially stripped of
their names, in a bid to cut sentimentality from the forestry
debate. A list of the world's biggest hardwood trees on
Forestry Tasmania's website has reverted to using scientific
terms only. Until recently, the Giant Trees Register held
the names of El Grande, the Geeveston Giant, Gothmog, Mount
Tree, the Styx Big Tree and the Styx Bigger Tree.
HERALD
SUN... |
So, this is paradise?
15 December 2003
A growing number of "creative emigres" is seeking
solace and inspiration in Tasmania. But with isolation comes
a small-minded arts bureaucracy, writes Tasmanian returnee
and arts columnist Jane Rankin-Reid...............But my
five requests to interview the Arts Minister, Premier Bacon,
were all declined, until last Friday when he said "the
arts bureaucracy is as innovative and receptive to new ideas
as it had ever been".
MELBOURNE
AGE... |
Giant trees lose names.
15 Dec 03
TASMANIA'S giant trees have been officially stripped of
their names to cut sentimentality from the forestry debate........
Mr Law said without the names, the register now read like
a statistical spreadsheet. "We have the tallest and
largest hardwood trees on Earth and we should be trying
to promote them, not using dull, soulless techno-babble
designed to deprive these great trees of their identity,"
he said. Those in Forestry Tasmania who promoted the naming
of El Grande had faced recriminations, he said.
HOBART
MERCURY.... |
This weekend is your last chance to see
a superb, locally made film:
"The Battle of Baker's Creek"
• Neil Cremasco - 13 December 2003
It's a film that has received excellent reviews by those
who've seen it, and it's about community opposition to industrial
logging in the Lucaston Valley, in southern Tasmania. It
was filmed over 8 months by film maker Brian Dimmick, who
was part of the action, as locals mobilised against woodchip
giant Gunns Ltd. Footage includes a number of arrests and
the alleged assault on Brian by a logger. The residents
of Lucaston are still planning to fight the logging of their
beautiful valley this summer, and the woodchippers look
like moving in next week. This film tells their story and
will inspire others to stand against inappropriate development
in their area.
Where: State Cinema - Elizabeth Street, North Hobart
When: 11:45am this weekend: Sat 13th & Sun 14th Dec.
Cost: $8 concession / $10 waged
Copies of the video will be available for distribution.
For orders, or to help to spread the film around, please
email Adam: aburling@nfn.org.au |
A gentle giant falls
13 December 2003
The land falls silent . . activist Bert Lawatsch stands
on a eucalypt stump in Tasmania's Styx Valley to survey
the loss.
SYDNEY
MORNING HERALD... |
Protester sends message from Tasmanian
tree top
12 December 2003
SYDNEY — After a month of living in an 83-meter-tall
hardwood tree in Tasmania, Japanese environmental activist
Sakyo Noda has a message for the Japanese companies that
buy woodchips from Australia's ancient forests. "Importers
should be sourcing woodchips from sustainably managed plantations,
not ancient forests," he said.
JAPAN
TODAY... |
USA Environmentalists sue clearfellers
of old-growth temperate rain forest.
12 December 2003
Environmentalists characterize it as North America's last
largely intact old-growth temperate rain forest, while timber-industry
supporters see it as a storehouse of valuable wood commodities.
PLANET
ARC... |
Axemen Fight For Future of Their Sport.
12 December 2003
Greens Opposition Spokesperson on Sport and Recreation Kim
Booth MHA, said it is scandalous that at the same time Forestry
is instructing logging contractors to either bury or woodchip
sawlogs, the supply of chopping blocks for a community activity
is threatened by clearfelling and woodchipping.
THE
TASMANIAN GREENS.... |
Up in Smoke
11 December 2003
It was the second accident involving a log truck at Circular
Head this week.
THE
ADVOCATE.... |
Australia’s
largest tree killed by burnoff -
El Grande
11 December 2003
Australia's largest living organism, a hardwood eucalyptus
tree, has been killed.
ABC
RURAL NEWS.... |
Disaster strikes giant tree - El Grande
11 December 2003
Forest authorities in Tasmania admitted yesterday they had
killed a eucalyptus reputed to be Australia's largest tree,
in a bungled burning operation to regenerate the surrounding
woodland.
THE
GUARDIAN - UK.... |
THE RAPE OF TASMANIA.
By Richard Flanagan in THE BULLETIN December 2003 edition
(buy it for posterity!).
Woodchipping in the island-state has been likened to an
ecological catastrophe, leaving in its wake not only the
corpses of trees and animals but the future of its inhabitants,
their heritage and political voice. The written history
of CORRUPTION in Tasmania goes like this ...
BULLETIN
MAGAZINE...
Previous Bulletin Article (13 Aug 03) on El Grande history
and showing a natural cycle of a healthy Old Growth Forest
HERE... |
Flaming fools kill forest giant - El
Grande
11 December 2003
IT'S a sad day for trees. The biggest, most robust hardwood
in Australia - 350 years old - is dead.
NEWS.com.au...
|
Giant tree's death prompts national park
call - El Grande
11 December 2003
The Wilderness Society has called for the Valley of the
Giants in the Styx Valley in southern Tasmania to be declared
a National Park in response to an admission by Forestry
Tasmania that it killed Australia's largest tree.
ABC
Tasmania... |
Biggest tree is officially a stiff
- El Grande
11 December 2003
AUSTRALIA'S largest living thing is officially dead and
Forestry
Tasmania has admitted killing it.
NEWS.com.au...
|
Protection calls as giant dies
- El Grande
11 December 03
FORESTRY TASMANIA has admitted that it killed Australia's
biggest living thing -- giant eucalypt El Grande.
HOBART
MERCURY.... |
Australia's largest tree dies
- El Grande
10 December, 2003
A giant Tasmanian eucalypt believed to be Australia's largest
tree had been declared dead after being burnt in a forestry
operation, authorities said today. El Grande, which stood
79m tall with a girth of 20m, fell victim to a forestry
regeneration burn in the upper reaches of the Derwent Valley,
north-west of Hobart, in April.
THE
MELBOURNE AGE... |
Climate change report gives devastating
assessment, ABC Online -Australia
10 December , 2003
Rising sea temperatures could endanger Tasmania's burgeoning
marine aquaculture industry, while the future of tourism
in Queensland would be threatened by the death and bleaching
of coral reefs. Kakadu's freshwater ecosystem would be lost.
MORE...
|
|
Australian officials set fires, accidentally
burn nation's largest tree - El
Grande
10 December 2003
CANBERRA, Australia -- Forest authorities admitted they
had killed a eucalyptus reputed to be the nation's largest
tree in a bungled burning operation to regenerate the
surrounding woodland. Conservationists in Tasmania state
declared the tree dead in May. Known as El Grande, it
stands 260 feet tall and 65 feet around its base.
MINNEAPOLIS
STAR TRIBUNE...
|
From Frank Strie.
How soon will Tasmania change?
The Forestry World is changing, how soon will Tasmania?
Positive Changes and examples in forestry: PRO-SILVA
- http://www.pro-silva.org
Current highlights: has been written by Frank Strie along
with a number of others based in Tasmania, Australia. This
comprehensive introduction to Pro Silva from an Australian
perspective is well worth reading for both those new to
Pro Silva and those more familiar with its principles. |
Protesters to spend week in tree in Melbourne's
Treasury Gardens to protest against woodchipping in Victorian
and Tasmanian native forests.
8 December 03
.... on the fringe of Australia's largest unprotected rainforest,
the Tarkine
in Tasmania. He said the logging threatened native animal
species and eco-tourism in the region.
THE
AUSTRALIAN ... / NEWS.com.au...
/ HERALD
SUN... |
|
Take your pick of Log Truck Stories
THE LOG TRUCK LOG
|
|
Bob Cheek speaks out against clear-felling
of tassie forests.
I believe that Tasmania's way out of step with the rest
of the nation, and certainly Tasmania's selling themselves
as a pristine environment, and relying on tourism heavily.
It's an absolute joke that we are doing this to our old
growth, and it can be easily stopped.
ABC
- WORLD TODAY....
|
GLOBAL RESCUE STATION - Styx Valley
On November 12, 2003, GREENPEACE
and THE
WILDERNESS SOCIETY launched an international campaign
to save Tasmania's Styx forest. Activists have constructed
a tree platform, dubbed Global Rescue Station, 65 metres
up one of the world's tallest trees. SEE
THE WEBSITE FOR BREAKING NEWS AND PICTURES OF THE CAMPAIGN
SEE WHAT THE PRESS SAYS
JAPAN
TIMES • JAPAN
TODAY • MERCURY-1
• MERCURY-2
• GUARDIAN-UK
AND SOME MIND BLOWING IMAGES... PIX
FROM THE STYX
GUNNS
Ltd UNDER ATTACK BY GREENPEACE
SYDNEY
MORNING HERALD • MELBOURNE
AGE • AGE
- 2 |
|
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