Forests Forever Films | Environmental conservation organisation

Forests Forever Films

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23.01.2022 great article about Vicforests and the battles to save endangered animals and their forest habitat

23.01.2022 Congratulations WOTCH !

22.01.2022 An open letter to The Andrews Government "It’s time to act for nature in Central Victoria" Creating new National Parks isn’t just about saving wildlife and safeguarding beautiful places. It’s about clean air and water, a liveable temperature and people’s livelihoods. See https://createnewparks.org.au/

22.01.2022 BREAKING The Nannas for Native Forests are conducting a ‘citizen’s inspection’ inside the yards of Simcoa Operations north of Bunbury this morning. Thirty Na...nnas are inside the yards gathering photographic and video evidence of the huge volumes of Jarrah being used as charcoal by Simcoa in its silicon manufacturing process. They are supported by about forty people outside the gates who back the Nannas in their call for the full protection of the South West forests. The Nannas are gravely concerned about the impact that logging our South West forests has on climate and biodiversity and we feel a responsibility to act for our grandchildren," said Di Shanahan, spokesperson for the Nannas for the Native Forests. We have identified that Simcoa is the major buyer of Jarrah logs - driving the logging of our remaining publicy owned Jarrah forests. The footage and photographs that we gather today will expose the extraordinary scale of Simcoa’s operations. We’re confident that all West Australians will agree when they see these images that this is an outrageous waste of the South West’s Jarrah forests forests that are so incredibly valuable standing, said Ms Shanahan. Simcoa has a contract with the McGowan Government to buy up to 210,000 tonnes of Jarrah per year from logging and clearing operations, said Jess Beckerling, WA Forest Alliance convenor. That’s the single largest volume of Jarrah logs available to any one company, and they are burning it all as charcoal and releasing massive volumes of carbon into the atmosphere, said Ms Beckerling. Contact: Jess Beckerling, WAFA | 0488 777 592 Location: Simcoa Operations 973 Marriott Rd, Wellesley Jane Hammond Mark McGowan Nannas for Native Forests

21.01.2022 The animals killed by logging - filmed at night in Snobs Creek Valley

21.01.2022 Spread this Message - The World, Our planet is in Serious Danger and most people do not realize it.

21.01.2022 They have no voice - somebody has to speak for them. They are critical to the soil, vegetation, Australian ecosystem. They are cute and beautiful and deserve ...to live just as we do. Humans have colonized the earth and left little space for other creatures. It is not fair, not just and not right. Google "species extinction" and you will find Australia has the LARGEST species extinction rate in the world! See more

20.01.2022 Today is Threatened Species Day : a very good day for ART & for letter writing. Today is the day we urge you to write letters to your local member. Take the opp...ortunity to involve children, if you have them around, by asking them to draw the animals which are threatened. Take a moment to tell your politicians that Mountain Ash logging needs to be stopped immediately. That logging takes away animals homes and then they die. That habitat for our animals slipping into extinction need be protected. That nature comes first before logger's jobs. That those loggers can be transitioned into national park maintenance, into plantation, into land stewardship. That logging native forest is not a God given right they have (that's often their rhetoric). That we feel horrified that in this day and age we are still cutting down the world's best carbon storing trees, that we have lost almost all of the old growth, that we are cutting water catchment areas hence jeopardising Melbourne's future water supply!!! Tell your politician that you will take tangible steps - tell them you will talk to people in the community, that you only buy FSC, that you will not vote for them unless they support immediate ending of native forest logging. That you care about this matter and you won't let up. Any other leverage you can think of. Make your children proud. You can also mark the event by calling your Federal Senators & telling them that Sussan Ley's appalling bill, rammed through a gagged lower house, is unacceptable & the bill in its current form is a recipe for extinction. For Senators' names and phone contacts see : www.aph.gov.au/senate/los

19.01.2022 Why do people like me have to fight our government both at the State and Federal level to protect our environment? Why do 71 years olds like me, have to go into... the forest at night to find endangered species to stop Government sponsored logging? Why do people like me have to beg friends to contribute funds so we can take our Government to court over it's destruction of our environment? What a crazy situation - where citizens have to defend nature against onslaught by Government, industry and trade Unions? My heart shrinks every time I hear the words "Economics" or "Jobs, jobs, jobs" because it often means more destruction of nature. Surely both the State and Federal Governments could create jobs to heal our land, plant trees, protect waterways, regenerate forests, create more caring farming systems where people nurture the land instead of destructive large-scale cattle farming, mining and logging etc. See more

18.01.2022 Outrageous. While everyones distracted by the pandemic, the Morrison Government is trying to ram through disastrous changes to gut our environment laws, before... anyone can ask questions. Weve united with five of Australias biggest environment groups to launch a huge advertising campaign the Morrison Government cant ignore. Share our hard-hitting ad now as it hits TV & billboards. Together, lets get this message in front of hundreds of thousands of people! Share and tag Scott Morrison (ScoMo) & Sussan Ley MP

18.01.2022 Please everybody send a message to the "Parliamentary inquiry into ecosystems decline in Victoria " Submit before 31 August 2...020. The public needs to send a strong message to our Government that it is not happy with the way they are treating OUR NATURE largely for personal gain. The message does not have to be long. I have posted my email below - write from personal experience about how you feel our nature is being treated by our government. Here goes: I walk in the forest and the seventy year old Mountain Ash trees rising to the sky with few low hanging branches or hollows for animals to nets in. Stags (thick,old, gnarled, tops broken off trees) are few and far between. A dense undergrowth of fern, wattle, sassafras and fallen logs makes it difficult to walk through. With time, however, biodiversity will increase and the endangered animals of Sooty owl, greater glider and lead beater's possum will come back to inhabit these forests but the Government will not allowing this. Future generations will not see our Mountain Ash forests in their full grandeur with enormous trunked trees gnarled and branching in all directions and possums like pandas peering down from dizzying heights.These forests will become grand and varied in 100 to 200 more years but they are soon to be logged by VicForests supported by the Victorian Government. Greed, money, corruption, fear of losing ones job, fear of losing power, silence and bureacratic inertia governs the lack of care for our forests and their future. The logging industries want uniform straight trees with nothing in between to hamper their logging operation. The logging industry does not want varied animal or plant species in the forest because that means VicForests might be taken to court. The logging industry just wants to destroy our biodiversity and the government is supporting this crime. Our Western predecessors tried to eliminate the first nations people 100-200 years ago and now our Government's continue this process by eliminating our precious varied plants and animals. This continues colonization and destruction. We, outside of government battle to protect what is left. We go out in cold and rain and try to find elusive endangered species and then try to raise money to fight court battles to protect our forests and our selves against our government. The government should be protecting us, our land and our plant and animal species against destruction but does the reverse! This is ridiculous. Environmental laws are modified by State and Federal Government to make it easier for this destruction to take place. To make it easier to destroy plants, animals and rare species found on our landscape. Using our taxes, the government employs expensive barristers and lawyers to fight its case for more destruction! We have to battle to raise money privately to fight our own government, trying to defend endangered species and forests. Landcare is espoused as the way to protect nature. But planting trees and bringing our diverse eco-systems back is much, much harder than keeping the complex eco-systems we already have. I walk over landcare sites and see most of the trees have died. They have not been cared for or maintained. Taxpayers money has been spent on failed replanting. I am not against planting trees and have planted many myself but often the sites chosen for landcare are not the most critical, the most eroded, the most needing of plant cover and most importantly, once planted trees are not cared for or maintained. Exploitation of soil, trees and rivers on private farmland goes apace. I walk over farmland and it is bogged up by cattle walking over largely bare hills. Few trees have been left and many of the old ones are dying. Logging and cattle have degraded our rivers whose banks have been eroded by cattle walking in and out. Cattle farming should be phased out and taxed for damaging the Australian countryside and contributing to carbon in the atmosphere. The government has no coordinated plan to protect the biodiversity of our rivers which are silted and turbid. There is no coordinated plan for river care and every government agency passes the responsibility for rivers and the blame for their damage on to every other agency. Rivers are not fenced in and protected and this is a major failing of our government and private landholders. The only place for nature is on our roadside reserves and in our forests and these are ravaged by government. What hope is there for nature? What hope is there for our planet? What hope is there for us to tackle climate change? Carbon is accumulating in the atmosphere and the State and Federal Government are doing nothing about this. Trees and forests are one of the main absorbers of Carbon but there seems to be little recognition of this by our Government and most people are concerned with everyday problems and cannot face these broader and long-term issues which their children will have to face. State Forests and National and State Parks need to be protected against logging. State Forests and National and State Parks can provide massive employment for many of those who are unemployed in the cities due to COVID and the economic shutdown. Rivers running through farmlands need to be fenced off and their banks replanted with indigenous species providing plenty of job for the unemployed. Farmers need to be encouraged (given incentives) by Government to care for their land and reserve areas for forests and plant and animal native species. None of this is happening........

18.01.2022 worth joining this seminar on Australian wildlife delivered by a leader in this field

17.01.2022 Bats - a meditation in flight and critical to our fruit, fertility and life

17.01.2022 Tim Flannery on COVID, Climate Change and our Government's Urgent need to ACT NOW.

17.01.2022 Global Challenge/ World count states that 9 million people die of starvation per annum (more than malaria, AIDs, Tuberculosis combined) and so far around 3/4 million have died from COVID (wikipedia 2020). We don't want anybody to die but are we over-panicking about COVID? Shouldn't we be focusing more on issues of starvation, hunger and poverty that affect people in most of the world? Shouldn't we be working out how to reduce global warming which is having a major impact on food supply, starvation and is affecting the lives of children and all the other miraculous life-forms on our planet?

17.01.2022 Make your voice heard. Make a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria. Deadline, 31 August 2020. See https://vnpa.org.au/ecosystem-decline-inquiry/

17.01.2022 Sustainable Timber Tasmania denied Forest Stewardship Council Certification for second time. See https://www.abc.net.au//sustainable-timber-tasma/12567014

16.01.2022 The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) has announced "The Independent Review of Victoria’s Wildlife Act 1975" Have your say to help shape a modern Wildlife Act. See https://engage.vic.gov.au/independent-review-victorias-wild

16.01.2022 More animals killed by logging in Snobs Creek valley

15.01.2022 We knew this, but it is good to see some real data regarding the suppression and dumbing down of scientific input to government decision making. Lest we forget Galileo. See https://www.abc.net.au//environment-scientists-c/12643824

14.01.2022 Logging - a loss making operation - overrides all other industries. The few native logging jobs override the thousands of other jobs that rely on the forest. Paper pulp is seen as more important than water, health, biodiversity, emissions targets.

14.01.2022 Please help to save our forests from VicForests.

13.01.2022 Congratulations to the Friends of Leadbeater's Possum, WOTCH and Environmental Justice Australia on their win in the Federal Court against VicForests. The case sets an important precedent. We understand that VicForests may appeal against the Federal Court's Final Orders. Problem or opportunity ?... Between now and the appeal, we should continue to gather evidence and campaign for the winding up of the VicForests Corporation. Here are the Final Orders. See https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au//si/2020/2020fca1199

12.01.2022 Environment shafted, yet again. See https://www.abc.net.au//australia-environnment-la/12627612

12.01.2022 I am very concerned by the Federal Governments commitment to use our tax-payers money to expand gas exploration and infrastructure. With the environmental crisis moving apace the Government should be committing to Rewilding our land. This would provide many jobs in soil, river and forest rehabilitation and result in carbon capture and environmental tourism. Recovering from COVID should be a time when we recover our land from 200 years of mismanagement. At the same tim...e, this would solve youth depression crisis by giving them a purpose to repair our broken land. The government needs a COVID recovery policy which encourages young people out of the cities and onto the land to restore and make it healthy again. Our remoteness from nature is what contributes to mental ill-health. One just has to walk over farms and along rivers and through deforested mountainsides to see how much we have traumatized and destroyed nature. One just has to hear the news about arctic and antarctic ice-caps melting and birds dropping out of the sky from lack of food and exhaustion to know we are on the wrong track. Australia has the highest rate of animal extinctions in the world but our Government turns a blind eye to this. We need urgently to turn from a focus on economic development to a more holistic approach which benefits all living animals on our planet. Without that we are doomed. We cannot just seek consumption for ourselves. We need to reduce our electricity use. We need to reduce our consumption, population growth and waste and care for our ecosystems and not expand more gas infrastructure. More effort should be place on expanding solar systems, battery storage, wind and wave energy.

12.01.2022 This letter by John Poppins below was not published in the Age, but it was an encapsulation of the driving forces behind our collapsing forests. John's let...ter was written following an article about VicForests giving up on its attempts to gain certification to Forest Stewardship Council standards (FSC). VicForests complained that environmentalists were included on the FSC board. John was involved in the first attempt to get an FSC standard specifically for Australia. It failed because a fowl mouthed CFMEU rep refused to support it at a conference in Canberra. For years subsequently the FSC had to work with a generic international standard rather than one customised for Australia. The big difference between logging standards developed by Industry and Governments is that FSC gives equal representation and weight to Community, Environmental, and Industry chapters. Agreement must be reached by all three to incorporate an item as part of national local FSC standards. -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Forestry Standards Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2020 11:34:18 +1000 From: John Poppins To: The Age, Your Say At dinner with a gentleman who had retired years before as Chairman of the Forests Commission I diffidently mentioned that I had been looking at logging coupes in the Moondarra catchment, which also provides much of the water for Latrobe Valley industry. His immediate response was to the effect that they shouldnt be harvesting that so young, they should have let them grow on into higher value sawlog. Since then we have seen the collapse of much of the sawmill industry for lack of older, quality, sawlog because of ever-expanding take of younger trees for pulpwood. This is driven by Victorian legislation which mandates logging rates for pulpwood from public native forests, well beyond sustainable replacement rates, without provision for losses to bushfire, drought reduced growth rates, pests, losses of biodiversity, nutrients and soil. On top of this regrowth is taking a conservatively estimated 10% from our water yields from logged forests. VicForests has been party to standards set by the industry alone, which have lost credibility. The Forest Stewardship Council standards, which are considered the benchmark internationally, are so highly valued because they mandate the involvement of Community and Environment groups on a basis of equality with Industry. John Poppins, Mount Waverley

11.01.2022 Bushfire facts, webinar. See https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/bushfire-facts-live-tickets

11.01.2022 In 2000 the IPCC estimated 1,100 Gt (billion tonnes) of carbon is stored in forests. Amazingly, this amount is more than the carbon stored in fossil fuel reserves (about 800 Gt), and more than the total carbon added to the atmosphere as a consequence of human activities since 1870 (about 600 Gt).

11.01.2022 Mum and baby before the loggers come.

10.01.2022 Environmental Justice Australia lawyers will be conducting a Webinar 7 to 8 pm, Wednesday 23 September 2020. The subject is the ongoing battle in the Courts to save our forest ecosystems from VicForests. Please participate and give EJA all the support you can.... See https://www.envirojustice.org.au//eja-seminar-series-fore/

10.01.2022 Judgment in our Court case this morning, Friday 21 August!

09.01.2022 Room for improvement.

09.01.2022 When the weather is good, I and sometimes Ed joins me on our ventures into the forest to seek endangered speciesIt is a battle however because the trees are only 70 years old and that leaves few crevices and crannies for endangered animals like Lead beaters possum to live in. Sometimes we are out in the forest for five hours and come home exhausted after clambering over slipper logs, crawling under dripping ferns, trying to avoid leaches, falling into holes and sliding across logs over rivers. We have to carry heavy equipment - thermal cameras, powerful torches, night movie cameras and snacks to keep us going plus warm protective wet weather gear. So crazy that we citizen scientists aged 71 and 75 have to battle against our own governments to protect our endangered forests and complex ecosystems.

09.01.2022 We want to send a message to our government that destroying our natural environment is not on. We don't want to harm loggers. We want the government to find th...em new jobs. We want people to be employed in protecting our environment, not destroying it. So many animals are being killed. So many streams are being polluted. So many trees are being chopped down. And our climate is heating. It is heartbreaking. See more

09.01.2022 Dramatic developments in Victoria's Supreme Court ... In granting the injunction, Justice McMillan said: "Whilst the defendant (VicForests) has demonstrated it will suffer some short-term loss, and that long-term loss may exacerbate any likely shortfall in production, this pales in comparison to the potential threat of irreversible environmental damage to the fire affected threatened species. All five of the threatened species have been identified by the state government as o...n the path to extinction. It goes without saying that once these species are extinct, there is no going back." Add this to the recent findings of Justice Mortimer in the Federal Court and VicForests should be feeling distinctly uncomfortable. Well done WOTCH and Environmental Justice Australia (EJA). See https://www.envirojustice.org.au/supreme-court-case-wotch/

08.01.2022 Parliament is conducting an Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria. Submissions close Monday 31 August. Have your say !... See https://victoriannationalparksassociation.cmail19.com//4C4

08.01.2022 Rain, hail or snow. WOTCH is out there.

07.01.2022 Environment groups accuse VicForests of illegal logging. See https://www.theage.com.au//environment-groups-accuse-vicfo

06.01.2022 Indigenous elder stresses importance of Snobs Creek. See https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/indigenous_elder_stresses_i

06.01.2022 Victoria's ecosystems are in decline. And forests are suffering terribly. Have your say before the end of August.

05.01.2022 VicForests, the logging agency of the Victorian Government has applied TO LOG 59 NEW areas because they lost the 66 areas in the recent Federal Court Case, so t...he fight for our forests goes on. Rampant greed, lust for wood (over 80% being used for paper pulp, coffins and pallets) by the Timber Industry, Corporations, Government and trade unions WILL continue to destroy our forests. The Federal Government of Scott Morrison (with Susan Leys - as the incompetent Minister for the Environment) continue to WEAKEN environmental laws (EPBC - Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act) to make it possible for business to destroy our environment. Professor Graeme Samuel AC who was recently employed by the Federal Government to review the EPBC act stated in June 2020 that the act and the way it is being implemented means that our biodiversity is being destroyed at a rapid rate. The Act is totally inadequate to protecting our environment. Environmental Justice Australia states Instead of strengthening protections for native wildlife, we are seeing both the Andrews and Morrison Governments move to rush through proposals that weaken environment laws and obstruct community access to the courts. These policies will hand big business carte blanche at the expense of our native wildlife and shield industry and government from being held accountable under the law. Its vital to our democracy that community has the right to challenge industry and government when they flout the law, especially when it is at the expense of our shared living world and the places and wildlife we love.

05.01.2022 Clearfell "insanity" threatens Victoria's most important fish hatchery See https://www.foe.org.au/clearfell_insanity

03.01.2022 Today, "the Victorian Government is taking urgent action to protect the platypus with the global icon now officially a threatened species and listed as vulnerable in Victoria." Well, let's see if they really mean it. How about Dan orders VF to stop native forest logging in all of Victoria's catchments, that are or could be platypus habitat ?... That could be about half the State. Do it Dan. See https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/protecting-our-iconic-platyp

03.01.2022 Thanks to the excellent work by The Friends of Leadbeater's Possum, WOTCH and Environmental Justice Australia (EJA) the Federal Court has granted a final injunction to prevent logging of threatened wildlife habitat in certain coupes in Victoria. Subsequently, VicForests have given notice that they intend to lodge an appeal. We should not be disheartened by the prospect of an appeal. Rather, we should continue to gather evidence and fight the case with vigour, until all nati...ve forest logging in Australia is consigned to the dustbin of history. Here is VicForests arrogant notice of appeal.

03.01.2022 Firewood ? Do we really need it ?

02.01.2022 Kangaroo Island forestry; a bloody disaster. See https://www.theage.com.au//the-forestry-vision-that-turned

01.01.2022 VicForests are appealing against the Federal Court decision in favour of The Friends of Leadbeater's Possum. There is an alternative. Dan Andrews could wind up the VicForests Corporation now. Right now.... Forthwith. Today. Just do it Dan. In the meantime, you can help Environmental Justice Australia with donations. Please donate as much as possible, as so as soon as possible. See https://email.envirojustice.org.au//1EDDB84648E4490E143998