Great news! Environment Minister Lisa Neville has cancelled the planned burn of logged areas in the iconic Larissa Lane in #‎KuarkForest!

Last week we raised concerns that the Department of Environment and VicForests' burns of a logged area at Larrissa Lane would endanger the rare rainforest and Slender-tree ferns in the gully directly adjacent to the planned burn.

Yesterday a crime against nature was committed at Hensleigh ck rd on the Errinundra Plateau. The Victorian government burnt an area of rainforest that was illegally logged last year.

One year ago VicForests bulldozed ancient rainforest trees like Sassafras and Black olive berry, likely to be 1000 years old. Despite several investigations, an independent review, condemnation from Minister Lisa Neville MP and a commitment to bolster the logging rules. Nothing changed! Yesterday the Vic government burnt the damaged rainforest, completing the destructive operation and finally killing the 1000 year old trees they illegally bulldozed last year. A crime against nature.

It's the height of the logging burns season and VicForests and the Department of Environment are planning on burning the Larissa Lane rainforest area in the iconic Kuark forest.

We have to stop it!

Rainforest and rare and protected plants are at risk if the burn goes ahead.

You can take action by emailing Environment Minister Lisa Neville using the form below.

GECO and Fauna and Flora Research Collective has exposed another two unlawful rainforest logging breaces this week. These breaches are the fourth and fifth cases of VicForests' unlawful logging in rainforest areas in just three months. The area is situated in the Serpentine Rainforest Site of Significance, a well known stronghold for warm temperate rainforest and rare species.

A report has been submitted to the state government concerning inadequate vegetative buffers on stands of rainforest coinciding with a linear reserve. The rainforest in this area requires a 100m buffer under the law. Logging here is active and needs to be stopped so the law can be followed.

A VicForests coupe is under investigation by the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP) for logging of protected rainforest in East Gippsland's Cabbage Tree Creek Area. GECO surveys identified logged rainforest buffers, 40 rare Slender and Skirted Tree-ferns and 75 rainforest associated species. DELWP are scheduled to visit the coupe this week.

Rare Slender and Skirted Tree-ferns

VicForests has been caught out logging protected rainforest again. Logging commenced last week in high conservation value wet forest on the border of the Kuark and Murrungower forest blocks. This area is a stronghold for warm temperate rainforest, which is protected by law. An inspection of this coupe has revealed unlawful logging of rainforest buffer zones. We've collected evidence of the rainforest logging breaches and reported it to the Department of Environment, who are supposed to make sure rainforest is protected from VicForests logging operations. Once again the Victorian government has failed to protect rainforest from VicForests and allowed unlawful logging to occur.

Sixty people converged in the Kuark Forest over the weekend to learn and practice survey techniques for protected forest species. GECO forest campaigners presented educational presentations and workshops on species ecology, the East Gippsland forest campaign, survey report writing and rainforest biogeography. Valuable data was collected on the presence of rare, threatened and protected species in VicForests logging coupes. We also completed two forest carbon accounting plots adding to our forest carbon assessment data.

Environment East Gippsland (EEG) is suing VicForests in the Supreme Court again!

Central to the legal case are inadequate protections and pre logging surveys for protected species such as the critically endangered East Gippsland Galaxias fish, the endangered Long footed potoroo, Yellow bellied gliders and rare and protected plants in an area of the Kuark Forest. VicForests refused to stop logging in the area subject the the Court action, so EEG took out an emergency injunction to halt logging of the protected species habitat. GECO has collected survey data on the protected species in this area that may be used as evidence in the case. The Age newspaper ran a story last week about the case. Click read more to view the story.

Great news! The greater glider survey we conducted recently has been verified by ecologists commissioned by the Department of Environment. 100 hectares will be protected from logging! The verification team found the same number of gliders as we did, 15 in total.

It's good to see the government respond and act in this case. But why was this logging area not surveyed to start with and why did it take a small group of volunteers to conduct an 11th hour survey to stop logging at the last minute? Hopefully this will encourage Lisa Neville MP's  Department to conduct independent pre-logging surveys to ensure protected species are identified prior to logging. There was some great coverage about this successful result on the ABC's AM program. A journalist from the program came out with us on a survey looking for the Greater Gliders smaller cousin, the Yellow Bellied Glider.

Last week we submitted reports to the Department of Environment detailing the presence of protected rainforest, a rare and protected plant and a large population of protected Yellow Belly Gliders in areas scheduled for logging in Kuark forest.

The Department confirmed they will investigate our reports, but they have allowed logging to commence before they investigate!

We reported this before logging started. Instead of issuing a direction to VicForests to not log until the investigation had taken place, the Department has allowed logging to start before they investigate.

Another great result for East Gippsland's forests today! Legal action by Environment East Gippsland combined with our threatened species surveys has forced VicForests to halt logging in an area of #‎KuarkForest and survey for threatened species!

Watch this short film telling the story of the blockade in this forest subject to legal action and our surveys that recorded endangered species. A lot of the forest has been lost, but VicForests have been forced to not log significant sections of the coupe and protect habitat of the critically endangered East Gippsland Galaxias fish, which is found nowhere else on earth.

In the early morning hours of January 25th, three citizen scientist surveyors conducted a survey for Greater Gliders in old growth forest on the Errinundra Plateau. Logging machinery had just moved in and logging was about to commence. We knew this area was high quality habitat for Greater Gliders and we conducted a survey to determine if the species was present in high enough densities to trigger legal protection. We found 15 Greater Gliders in about 800m, this is a huge population that should trigger legal protection and result in the creation of a 100 hectare protected area. If greater than 10 Greater Gliders are found within a 1km survey transect, a 100 hectare protected area must be created. We finished the survey at 3am, complied the data, wrote the report, mapped the results and submitted it the state government by 8:59am. By 10am VicForests were forced to stop logging! Click here to read the report.

20 conservationists from Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) have re-established a forest blockade in the Kuark forest to the north east of Orbost in East Gippsland.

Last week logging was stopped for four days by a person in a tree platform tied to logging machinery. This morning a person is positioned 8m above the ground on a timber tripod, blocking access to the contentious logging coupe. Another person is positioned up a large timber pole attached to logging machines, which is preventing logging from continuing.

Conservationists have halted logging in the Kuark forest in far East Gippsland this morning.  A person is positioned on a tree platform 30m above the ground. Ropes from the platform are attached to machinery, preventing logging from continuing.

The contentious logging coupe contains high quality habitat for threatened species. State owned logging company VicForests has not conducted a pre-logging threatened species survey, as required by law.

Citizen science surveys conducted by GECO have recorded two listed endangered species in the area. An endangered Long-footed potoroo was recorded on a remote fauna camera two weeks ago and last week a population of critically endangered East Gippsland Galaxias fish were photographed in streams bordering the logging coupe.

Images: Protesters in the forest this morning. 

Logging has recommenced in the highly contentious old growth forest of Hensleigh creek rd, near Errinundra National Park. Logging was halted in April after we exposed illegal rainforest logging. The Victorian government conducted two investigations and an independent review which found 'inconclusive' evidence because the rainforest had already been destroyed. Environment Minister Lisa Neville committed her Department to improve logging rules in light of this controversial operation, but in a massive backwards step she has allowed VicForests back into the area. We took direct action to stop the logging yesterday. Police broke up the blockade last night and logging is expected to start again today. Logging is occurring without a legally required pre logging survey for protected wildlife. We've documented Greater Gliders in high densities in the area, however the government are refusing to protect their habitat and force VicForests to conduct a legally required survey. Click read more to take action and read our media release.

Our first citizen science survey camp of the year has been a huge success! 60 people came from all over the country to take part in forest surveys in areas earmarked for logging. We collected valuable data on rainforest, old growth forest, giant trees, forest carbon, Long-footed potoroo presence and high densities of Greater gliders. We’ll be collating the data over the coming weeks and formalising it into reports to be submitted to the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning.  The data will help ensure that VicForests logging operations do not illegally impact upon areas of rainforest and threatened species habitat.