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.

Environment East Gippsland's (EEG) Court case concerning protection of Owl habitat reached an out of Court settlement late last week. This has resulted in 2000 hectares of forest being set aside in Owl habitat reserves. Some areas to be set aside are forests where GECO recorded Owls during surveys to collect evidence for the Court case.

While many areas of critical habitat for the Masked, Sooty and Powerful Owl remain open to logging, it's a significant victory that's taken 9 proposed logging areas off the logging schedule and placed a four year moratorium on 16 proposed logging areas. The government has also committed to increasing the size of all protected areas for owls that are below legal minimums in East Gippsland, carrying out expert research to help inform whether further protection is needed for owls and paying part of EEG's considerable costs to bring this case to court.

This Endangered Masked Owl was recorded during a GECO survey at Pikes Hill in the Kuark forest. This forest will be placed into a 500 hectare reserve to protect the Owl's habitat. Without EEG's legal action and our survey work this forest may have already been logged.