Media
Labor eyed shutdown of native logging
Industry pushes against the grain
Stockpiles of logs at Neerim South lie in wait for the end of VicForests' contractual dispute. Photo: Penny Stephens
Adam Morton and Melissa Fyfe
February 4, 2012
THE logs - thousands of them - are piled neatly in an old sawmill yard at Neerim South, Gippsland. To the casual observer they may look unexceptional. But the truck drivers, paid by the government to cart the felled trees from the state's forests, know better. This place is a dumping ground, albeit temporary. And the wood - representing about 100 hectares of trees - symbolises long-term problems with the management of Victoria's native forests.
730 Report - Government Denies a Conflict of Interest
Forestry Minister, Peter Walsh, says the changes are important for the timber industry.
Josie Taylor
Source: 7.30 Victoria | Duration: 6min 20sec
Logging stoush heading to trial
abc.net.au
By Gus Goswell
Updated January 31, 2012
A dispute over logging near the Errinundra National Park in far East Gippsland, in south-east Victoria, is heading for a Supreme Court trial.
Conservation group Environment East Gippsland argues VicForests has been illegally logging in an area of national rainforest significance.
VicForests has agreed not to log in the forest block until the Supreme Court trial later this year.
Cattle banned from Victoria's high country
abc.net.au
31 January 2012
Alpine grazing by cattle will be banned in the Victorian high country, Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has announced.
VicForests faces court
Adam Morton
The Age - January 31, 2012
CLAIMS that Victoria's state-owned timber agency illegally logged a protected rainforest area in the state's far east will be tested at a Supreme Court trial.
Conservation group Environment East Gippsland has accused VicForests of logging a rainforest area of significance near the Errinundra Plateau.
VicForests says the map of protected area relied on by Environment East Gippsland is incorrect.
The timber agency has given an undertaking there will be no further logging in the area before the trial starting on April 10.
A trial over separate allegations of illegal logging, in the state's central highlands near Toolangi, starts next week.
It's a national park, not a farm: alpine grazing rejected
David Wroe
The Age - January 31, 2012
The Victorian government has lost its fight to let high country graziers back into the Alpine National Park, with federal Environment Minister Tony Burke announcing today that the application had been rejected.
Mr Burke said in Canberra that his department had advised him that the application by Victoria to allow grazing was inconsistent with federal environmental law.
"A national park should not be used as a farm," Mr Burke said.
Ramsay's wind farm backflip
The Weekly Times
January 12, 2012
THE about-face of State Liberal Simon Ramsay over his attitude to wind farms is hard to swallow, writes GREG BARBER
Six years ago, Simon Ramsay wanted to be part of the wind industry, to diversify and drought-proof his farm.
It was smart because while the price of agricultural commodities seems to move downwards, the demand for zero-emissions electricity grows.
Mr Ramsay is now one of the most rabidly anti-wind MPs (Weekly Times , November 30) in a government that has all but killed off new wind-farm proposals in Victoria.
Landmark deal saves Tasmania's native forests
Andrew Darby
The Age
January 14, 2012
Conservationists are not buying 'landmark' claim, Andrew Darby writes from Hobart.
LARGE tracts of Tasmanian native forest have secured legal protection from logging in the tortuous process aimed at ending the state's forests dispute.
Tree sit halts logging at Toolangi
Media Release: 16th January 2012
The Central Highlands Action Group
Tree sit halts logging at Toolangi
More than 30 protesters are today halting logging operations at a large coupe on Yellowdindi rd in Toolangi state forest.