UPDATE: Two areas have been taken off the immediate schedule, and state-owned VicForests told the courts they won't log forests in 'Alla Turca' till next year, and all the logging machines have left the area!

Environment East Gippsland (EEG) have secured a court injunction to halt logging in 'Alla Turca' coupe in Errinundra! Logging had only just started when the injunction was granted on Wednesday afternoon. For the last month private security has been stationed 24/7 in the area to prevent community members and supporters from protesting the logging. The area is just down the road from Camp Errinundra which has stalled logging for over 3 months.

Thanks to the combined efforts of citizen scientists, EEG and their legal team, and all the folks who've taken action and been out to camp, the gliders are safe for now! But the fight is far from over. There are still hundreds of areas up for logging across East Gippsland, and the legal battle for these forests is just beginning.

Drone footage of logging in the area before the injunction was granted

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

For two weeks logging has been halted in a precious area of forests in Errinundra. For 11 days an East Gippsland local stayed up a tree-sit to stop machines from coming in, they were arrested a few days ago, along with another person occupying a tree-sit nearby. Since then protesters have blocked the road with a tri-pod structure. Despite the arrests protests are continuing in the area, where logging has been prevented from going ahead for the last 2 weeks.

A conservationist is now blocking the road stopping machines from entering the forest

Protesters are occupying an area of forest about to be logged on the Errinundra Plateau in East Gippsland. One local community member has taken residence in a tree-sit suspended 40 metres up a giant Eucalypt tree to halt destruction of the area. The tree-sit is located in one of the last unburnt areas of forest in East Gippsland for endangered wildlife heavily impacted by last year’s bushfire.

Email [email protected] to get involved

View from the tree-sit over the Errinundra Plateau

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.

GECO volunteers discovered an illegal rainforest logging operation at Hensleigh ck on the Errinundra Plateau this week. The state owned logging company VicForests have destroyed an entire cool temperate rainforest gully in breach on Victorian law. Rainforest is supposed to be protected under Victorian law. GECO has submitted a detailed report on this illegal destruction to the Victorian government. Read the report here.

Go here to read ABC news coverage.

We are calling on Environment Minister Lisa Neville MP and Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford to step in and stop this illegal  logging operation.  Email and call them today and call on  them to stop the logging at Hensleigh Ck and investigate this appalling destruction.

[email protected] - 03 5248 3462         [email protected] - 03 9637 9940