MyEnvironment Inc - My Environment

PUBLIC MEETING ON FORESTS OF TOOLANGI - Logging Mt St Leonard

A public meeting will be held this Friday at 7pm - May the 18th at the CJ Dennis Hall, Toolangi Kinglake Road - in Town.

The meeting will be presenting latest statistics on wildlife, the state of the Sylvia Creek case and we have provided VicForests with a forum to deliver stakeholder feedback on the Timber Release program and how they concluded that logging Mt St Leonard was publicly accepted. We urge questions to be asked of the speakers but respect must be maintained at all times.

Shire opposes logging of the Yarra Ranges tourism

The Yarra Ranges brand is at risk of permanent damage if logging is allowed to continue on the iconic Mt St Leonard. In a last ditch effort to stave off permanent damage to the Yarra Ranges from woodchipping, the Yarra Ranges Council has supported the concerns of Yarra ranges constituents and restated their objection; that logging the scenic backdrop to our acclaimed Yarra Ranges is not supported by local government.

A letter was sent by Council in 2010 to the Brumby government that the Shire did not agree with logging sites of high tourism activity, especially given the effects the fires had on regional tourism. Last Tuesday they agreed to restate their position and resend this statement to the Baillieu government and to the Commonwealth Environment Minister Tony Burke and Regional Development Minister Simon Crean. A cluster of five logging coupes in fire surviving forests of Toolangi are set to hew the Northern and Western flanks of Melbourne’s iconic Mt St Leonard. With 3 million people visiting the Yarra Ranges annually, Mt St Leonard is the panorama for the gateway to the Yarra Ranges, Yarra Glen, Toolangi, Castella, Dixon’s Creek, Steel’s Creek, Yering, Tarrawarra, Healesville and Kinglake.

All these towns have suffered considerable losses from the 2009 bushfires and rely significantly on tourism to maintain their economy. When logged, the devastation will be as large as 20 Yarra Glen Race Course fields. The coupes will be visible from the Eureka Tower, the Rialto and even as far away as Essendon. The logging of these sites was fiercely opposed by local community in the Timber Release Planning but objections have to date been ignored with logging under way now in the third coupe. The sale of the forests are to either: Gunns new owners Australian Sustainable Hardwoods, Dormit timbers, Ryan McNaulty with 75% of the wood logged going to Japanese chip buyers Nippon,either to their pulp and paper company Australian Paper or to be purchased as export commodity woodchips for Nippon's overseas pulp mills.

The Shire of Yarra Ranges response to the logging can be downloaded here

The Environment Defenders Office read

Why the Toolangi case was so important
On 14 March 2012, environment group MyEnvironment lost their Supreme Court case against Vicforests. The Court rejected their argument, made on their behalf by their lawyers Bleyer Lawyers and barristers Kristin Walker and Emrys Nekvapil, that Vicforests ought not be able to log forests at Toolangi that are habitat for the critically endangered Leadbeaters Possum. The case’s many supporters will no doubt be disappointed with the final decision, however they can be reassured that the case was not in vain.

Since the Court case, the MyEnvironment team have been very busy saving the forests.

Here is a short summary of a large body of work:

MyEnvironment Inc. (ME Inc.) called on local government to act and successfully proposed restatement by Yarra Ranges Council of a motion objecting to the logging of our high value forests motion . Commitment to send the objection to Minister Tony Burke and Minister Simon Crean was also agreed to.
ME Inc. commenced the process for an appeal and will have our hearing in early June.
ME Inc. delegates were invited to a roundtable at Parliament in Canberra to provide briefings on the state of the Central Highlands forests
A submission written by our team, based on the outcome of the court case, has established an investigation into the RFA and its capacity to manage threatened species
The team have been briefing journalists for several key stories on threatened species and forests.
Our survey crew have surveyed many more forest sites and submitted them to DSE and VicForests - including renting expensive equipment to photograph species.
MyEnvironment Inc have legally challenged the Agriculture Minister's published slurs against the organisation. His comments have had demonstrable effects in our community.
Continued to build a national stakeholder campaign to stop the destruction of our native forests.
The crew have been working with scientists to further our knowledge base, develop new projects and explore new technology for monitoring habitat
Our team have continued our work with the markets to ensure forest certification remains legitimate and accurate by participating in reviews and meetings with certificate holders.
We have taken tours with representatives of major corporations and big buyers of Reflex paper.
Vietnam has been alerted that the Victorian government intends to offer subsidised native forest woodchips on the international market as per VicForests Corporate Intent . Whilst we don’t support that Vietnam’s logging is any better or worse than Australia, we do believe that it is grossly unfair for a developed country like Australia to under cut the unsubsidised workers of Vietnman for cheap woodchip contracts to China.

We are 100% volunteer based but there are many daily costs like travel, phone, legal assistance, mail and equipment.

Please help to keep this going. We are making major progress and need your help now to win a sensible reserve for Victoria’s near extinct tall forest wildlife.