Last month VicForests proposed to add about 300 areas (coupes) to their logging schedule or Timber Release Plan (TRP). 172 in the Central Highlands and 127 in East Gippsland. The additional Central Highlands coupes are in some of the last remaining habitat for the critically endangered Lead Beaters Possum and within the proposed Great Forest National Park.
You can take action by visiting the TRP TimeOut website. The site is a great resource to help you write letters to Victorian Ministers requesting the new logging areas not be approved. Use the letter provided and add you own comments about East Gippsland's forests. You can share it on twitter and facebook using the hashtag #TRPTimeOut.
In East Gippsland many of the additional areas are in very high conservation value forests. There are nine new coupes within the "Green Zone" on Mt. Jersey just above Goongerah.
This small area of just a couple of thousand hectares survived the massive 170,000 hectare fire in 2014. It is now an island of green in a sea of black and burnt forest and its conservation as a fauna refuge is critically important. The conservation of unburnt areas within large burnt areas of forest is essential for wildlife to recolinise into the burnt forest once regeneration permits. VicForests' plans to wipe out this small unburnt area will have seriously negative impacts upon species' ability to recolinise these areas.
Check out the google earth image of VicForests Timber Release Plan showing proposed logging coupes in far East Gippsland in red.
