#weld valley

[oceaniatropics]

Weld valley, Tasmania, Australia, by Bill Hatcher

[moratoriumnow-blog]

The short video was filmed three days ago in a forest in the Weld Valley, Tasmania, where new road making operations are being conducted right now.  A 1km road is being pushed in to previously unlogged forests, where a large scale cable logging operation is proposed to source timber for Ta Ann from steep slopes. Yesterday, conservationists from the Huon Valley Environment Centre conducted a protest at the site of this new logging road. Ten people walked into the forests and staged a peaceful vigil in these forests that are habitat for the endangered wedge tailed eagle, where unlogged native forest with species such as the Eucalyptus regnans will be logged along the banks of the Huon River. These new logging operations are a stark indication that there is a need for a fundamental policy change in Tasmania. The ongoing clearfelling of native forests is not acceptable. There is an urgent need for a transformation of the forestry industry and its silvicultural practices to focus on climate, water and wildlife as primary imperatives, driving forest restoration and protection. The native forest in the Lower Weld Valley is not included in the proposed 572 000ha for protection under the recently collapsed negotiations. Yet it is an intact unlogged tract of native forest which is a watershed for the Huon River. An active Wedge-Tailed Eagle nest is nearby, in line of sight of this new logging area. This lower Weld region has suffered a clearfelling assault over the past ten years, after the rapacious logging industry pushed in major logging roads, and a bridge over the Weld River.  All the while, local conservationists have been lobbying for protection of these forests and conducted peaceful protests in every logging coupe in the region.