Logging ceased at Huon Valley’s Mt Tongatabu after Sustainable Timber Tasmania declines to fight injunction
Logging at Mt Tongatabu has halted after Sustainable Timber Tasmania declined to fight an injunction brought by environmentalists.
Police & Courts
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A COURT battle expected to unfold between the Wilderness Society and Forestry Tasmania over logging at Mt Tongatabu did not go ahead on Thursday - due to the public forester declining to fight an injunction.
The Wilderness Society last week applied for a court order against the government body, known publicly as Sustainable Timber Tasmania, after alleging it was illegally logging near Surges Bay under the Forest Practices Act.
The environmental organisation claimed in a statement that plans to log the coupe had been “self-approved by an employee of Forestry Tasmania”, which was an “obvious conflict of interest”.
However, Sustainable Timber Tasmania denies the allegations, saying the logging was legal and was simply awaiting a decision on another legal case before pursuing this one.
“This week, the parties have agreed to an undertaking proposed by Sustainable Timber Tasmania that it will temporarily cease felling trees in Kermandie 45E,” Suzette Weeding, STT general manager of conservation and land management said.
“Operations at forest coupe Kermandie 45E have been conducted in accordance with the Forest Practices Act 1985, the Forest Practices Code 2020 and the current, certified Forest Practices Plan.”
The Wilderness Society said the coupe was within breeding habitat for the critically-endangered swift parrot, with a local campaign called “Save Tongatabu” set up in protest against logging in an area it described as laden with diverse native trees, vegetation and wildlife.
Before the expected court stoush on Thursday, the Tasmanian government decided not to contest the injunction, which according to the documents forbids “until further order” to “conduct any forest practices” at the Mt Tongatabu coupe.
The Wilderness Society celebrated the news as a win, but also noted the question of illegal logging remained unresolved in court.
“We were ready to go to court but, after we filed our evidence and Forestry Tasmania had the chance to consider it, it appears to have had second thoughts and backed down,” Wilderness Society campaign manager Tom Allen said.
“This is a major reprieve for this precious forest, the wildlife that lives there and the members of the local community, who recognise there is more value in it standing than falling. We hope Mt Tongatabu never faces the prospect of logging again.”
He called upon the Tasmanian Government and Forestry Tasmania to be “transparent and upfront”, slamming what he called a lack of federal oversight over Tasmania’s “scandalously poor self-regulation”.
Local resident Neil Fuller said the Save Tongatabu community was “delighted” at news the forest had a reprieve from logging.
“We feel greatly for the contractors and their families who have been pawns in these unnecessary games by the Tasmanian Government and Forestry Tasmania,” he said.
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