With the added attraction of senior botanist and East Gippsland specialist David Cameron, we had the biggest citizen science camp ever! Over 50 people attended for guided walks, talks & citizen science efforts and surveying. A new layer of people have been recharged and are ready to fight for the forests of East Gippsland!

Thanks so much to everyone who came and got involved. We hold citizen science and skillshare camps 3-4 a times a year - subscribe to our email list to get updates about the next camp!

Volunteers inside the giant 'Cathedral Tree' in the Errinundra. Photo credit: Trudy Photography

Forests Still Need Your Voice

Posted by Isaac Carne · August 19, 2024 9:59 AM

Day of Forest Defenders: Podcast & Video remembering our fallen legends

Posted by Ruben Rubens · January 18, 2024 12:45 PM

30 Years Fighting for Forests Celebration

Posted by Ruben Rubens · January 11, 2024 10:38 AM

Here's a list of the events we're hosting in 2023

The Andrews government has imminent plans to log forests which were supposed to be protected for the threatened Greater Glider. Back in 2018 we found a significant number of gliders in the Cottonwood area - we were told by the Environment Department that they were putting a protection area to save the gliders.

But we were alarmed when we saw the area was scheduled for logging in December, and was even resurveyed by the Environment Department earlier this year, even after they said they would protecting the forests!

Read the exclusive ABC story here. Take action and email decision makers to end logging now.

Greater Glider found in Steps Track by GECO citizen scientists

GECO volunteers have found a giant 14m circumference Errinundra Shining gum in forests slated for logging, only a few hundred metres from a main tourist road. The tree is around the same size and significance as the giant tree protected in the Old Growth forest walk in the Errinundra NP.

It's just one of many huge trees citizen scientists found in these forests. We're calling on the government to remove this area from the current logging schedule, read our report and recommendations here.

Giant 14.5 metre Errinundra Shining gum in forests slated for logging

Logging has been halted in an important area of forest home to critically endangered Masked Owl, and Yellow-bellied Gliders where GECO says logging was unlawful. Conservation groups sounded the alarm over illegal logging in the Colquhoun State Forest on Gunnai Kurnai Country in December last year when citizen scientists found a high density of Yellow-bellied Gliders.

GECO received a letter from the logging regulator stating the report and detections had triggered a protection zone. But they didn't protect forests up for logging, and refused to prosecute VicForests for illegally logging forests that should've been saved. There's a cluster of four coupes in the area, it's some of the last remaining old growth forest and unburnt refugia for threatened species in the Colquhoun.

Bulldozers were about to move into the adjacent forest, but thankfully Environment East Gippsland and their legal team secured an urgent injunction to stop the imminent logging of the forests. You can support their tireless work to defend East Gippsland's forests in court by donating here.

Unburnt forest refuge in the Colquhoun where logging was halted by a court injunction

In just over 5 years Greater Gliders are going from vulnerable to endangered under federal legislation, and are also set to be listed as endangered in Victoria. A new study shows threatened species laws are failing to stop the decline of wildlife like the Greater Glider, an article published in the Conversation says "The greater glider is edging towards extinction, but there is still no recovery plan for this iconic marsupial."

In Victoria, so-called protections for the Greater Glider announced by the Dan Andrews government in 2019 allows logging where gliders are found and weakens existing protections in East Gippsland, which were already failing to stop decline of the species.

For years we've been hosting citizen science camp to survey for gliders in forests scheduled for logging. Sign up to our email list to get updates on our next survey camp to be part of the campaign to save these precious critters.

Greater Glider found in forests scheduled for logging in Errinundra

Over 30 people attended our Easter citizen science and skill share camp over the long weekend, including Green Senator and First Nations activist Lidia Thorpe. Volunteers did surveys for Greater Gliders, tree measuring, and marked out a walk through an incredible area of threatened forest in the Cottonwood area. Community protests have halted logging for the last 9 weeks in the area. One area was removed from the immediate logging schedule, while two others are currently being blockaded. More than 5 people have been arrested and fined in the last week, but a person is still occupying a tree-sit, and another a quad-pod structure blocking access to the area.

Support is always needed at camp. Click here for directions and to get in touch to come out.

VicForests have removed the coupe in Errinundra where community protests have halted logging for nearly 2 months from the immediate schedule. Multiple tree-sits had been set up in the area, two people have been arrested since the protests started at the end of January this year. The Errinundra Plateau is one of the few remaining unburnt areas in East Gippsland, and a critical refuge for bushfire ravaged wildlife.

While the area is safe for now, logging machines are already moving into an area just down the road where GECO citizen scientists found five Greater Gliders. Protests against the logging are ramping up in the area. Camp Errinundra is still halting logging in this critical area of unburnt forest. Camp is always in need of more support, click here for details of how to get involved.

Community protests halted logging for nearly 2 months

East Gippsland conservation groups were outraged to learn this week that environmental protections for threatened species detected in state forests are being designed by state owned logging company VicForests.

GECO received notice from the Environment Department that a report submitted last year for detections of a high-density of Yellow-bellied Gliders had triggered the implementation of a 100ha protection zone. But we've been informed that the state-owned logging company VicForests were put in charge of designing the zone, and that it's being placed over existing buffers, and does not protect the habitat of the gliders. Logging had already started in the area when citizen scientists detected the species.

In less than a week over 500 people have emailed decision makers to call for protection of forests, over the past few days calls flooded into the Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio's office asking her to direct her Department to put in proper zones which protect the forests. Sign and share our email action here to keep making an impact!

Forests in the Colquhoun still threatened by logging