The Wilderness Society
4 Aug 2009
The Wilderness Society (or more particularly Gavan McFadzean, one of its senior campaigners) needs a foot up the backside for its latest nonsense.
In an earlier edition of the Friends of the Earth publication Chain Reaction, FoE camaigner Anthony Amis presented a reasoned explanation for the community's disappointment with the actions of TWS in endorsing the flawed deal between the State Government and Hancock Victorian Plantations over the Strzeleckis Cores and Links.
Gavan McFadzean replied with an implausible defence of his actions. Here is the response to his tirade by Friends of Bass Valley Bush:
I can't let Gavan McFadzean's letter about the Strzeleckis in the last issue of Chain Reaction go unanswered. In a joint Wilderness Society (TWS) / Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA) press release welcoming the secret deal negotiated by Minister Jennings and Hancock Victorian Plantations, Mr McFadzean said "We are pleased to see the Victorian Government moving to protect native forests in the Strzelecki Ranges."
In his latest response to comments by Anthony Amis from Friends of the Earth, Mr McFadzean made the statement that "the precious College Creek is under immediate threat from the chainsaws". But the destruction of College Creek is a direct result...
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Tags:
friends of the earth, strzeleckis, the wilderness society
Posted at: 07:46 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Logging College Creek
30 Mar 2009
This article was published in The Sunday Age on March 29.
ONE of Victoria's most prized but controversial cool temperate rainforest sites is being clear felled by loggers after the State Government reneged on a deal to protect it.Logging started in College Creek catchment in the Strzelecki Ranges six days after the Black Saturday fires devastated vast tracts on the hills that rise at the southern end of the Latrobe Valley.
College Creek was one of five environmentally significant core areas declared off limits to logging by then environment minister John Thwaites in 2006. It was to have been given to the people of Victoria. The core sites were to be linked by protected wildlife corridors joining the Strzeleckis' Tarra-Bulga National Park in the east to the Gunyah Gunyah Reserve, home of Australia's biggest tree by girth, at its western tip.
But last year Mr Thwaites' successor, Gavin Jennings, jettisoned the "cores and links" agreement and signed a new deal allowing Hancock Victorian Plantations to log College Creek and other areas that had been set aside.
Environmentalists have accused Mr Jennings of caving in to the logger, which has commercial contracts to supply timber to the Maryvale pulp and paper...
Tags:
gavin jennings, hancock victorian plantations, logging, strzeleckis
Posted at: 07:24 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
TWS shafted in East Gippsland after selling out Strzeleckis
31 Oct 2008
The Wildneress Society complains that bulldozers have moved in to log some old growth forest in East Gippsland. It says 'Forests must be at the forefront of the Brumby and Rudd governments’ climate change agenda. Protecting Australia’s native forests will help make the deep emissions cuts necessary to halt climate change.'
In a joint press release with the National Parks Association and the Australian Conservation Foundation, TWS expressed concern about the logging approved by the Victorian Government.
Members of Friends of Bass Valley Bush agree totally with those sentiments - but we wonder how the squealing of The Wilderness Society and the Victorian National Parks Association fits with their past actions.
Both TWS and the VNPA were very happy to sacrifice the Strzeleckis in the $6 million 'deal' announced between Environment Minister Gavin Jennings and Hancock Victorian Plantations. They fell over themselves to endorse the Strzelecki 'deal'. They say they have 'backed away' from that endorsement, but neither TWS nor the VNPA have withdrawn their support for the Strzelecki sell-out. Now perhaps they understand that they were used as patsies to get the deal through. But we doubt if they even care!!!
Tags:
hancock victorian plantations, strzeleckis, tws, vnpa
Posted at: 08:33 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Strzelecki background info
19 Aug 2008
There is still very little detail available about the secret 'deal' between the State Government and Hancocks but this background may help to set the scene for anyone who hasn't been involved in the process.
The Strzeleckis are unique forests which are a mosaic of old growth including rainforest, reforestation/plantings, plantations and regenerating forests. The public forests of the Strzeleckis have been excluded from public land planning processes which set aside comprehensive and adequate reserves. The Strzeleckis have the least amount of land set aside in any forested region of Victoria. The minimum for public land is 15% of the original vegetation while the Strzeleckis has only 2% protected in Parks and Reserves. The Strzeleckis have most recently been identified as one of the most important regions for the sequestration of carbon, which occurs at much higher rates than previously considered, creating an even more pressing reason to secure their preservation.
The starting point for the issue was that there should be no harvest of timber in the Cores and Links. The Cores and Links are key sites linking Gunyah Gunyah Reserve in the West to Tarra Bulga National Park in the East. There are 5 core areas, Gunyah, College Creek, Jack...
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Tags:
hancock victorian plantations, logging, rainforest, strzeleckis
Posted at: 07:45 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
The $5.5 million Strzelecki deal
6 Jun 2008
Victoria's Environment Minister Gavin Jennings has responded to concerns that the recent Strzelecki Ranges 'cores and links' deal will lead to the fragmentation and destruction of sensitive rainforest.
The Government's announcement was not in line with the original Heads of Agreement signed between the State Government, Hancock Victorian Plantations, Australian Paper, Trust for Nature and community representatives in October 2006.
Friends of the Gippsland Bush spokesperson, Susie Zent said the new agreement did not honour the original point of the cores and links project, to connect the Gunyah Gunyah rainforest with the Tarra Bulga National Park.
The State Government will pay $5.5 million plus 'in-kind' support to HVP and it says that an extra 15,000 hectares of bushland will be protected, with 1500 hectares subject to a one-off harvest by HVP. At this stage no detail has been provided to show which areas will be logged and as local groups were excluded from the final negotiations, there are major concerns that even the most sensitive areas are at risk.
Minister Jennings said it was clear two months ago that an agreement between the government, HVP and the environmental groups could not be reached.
'The difficulty was that negotiations had...
Tags:
cores and links, hancock victorian plantations, logging, rainforest, strzeleckis
Posted at: 07:31 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Petition to help save the Strzeleckis
18 May 2008
A petition is now active at
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/strzelecki/
to ask the Victorian State Government to honour its election promise to create a rainforest reserve in the Strzelecki
Ranges and protect sensitive areas from logging. The problem is that a previous Victorian Government hit on the bright idea of raising revenue by selling off state-owned forests to private enterprise.
When it was pointed out to them that they couldn't sell Crown Land they quickly arranged perpetual leases for the logging companies.
Some of the land should never have been sold (leased) because of its ecological values and it took years of active lobbying to get the Government and Hancock Victorian Plantations to acknowledge that.
A deal was organised with the help of Minister Thwaites to buy-back the most important bits of the rainforest - identified by independent consultants - for $7 million.
Everything looked sweet, then the Minister and the Premier resigned. The company seized the opportunity to lobby the new Minister and try to screw a better deal.
All we are asking is for the State Government to honour the agreement it made, which was part of its policy platform at the last election, to pay $7 million for an 8000 hectare...
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Tags:
hancock, rainforest, strzeleckis
Posted at: 06:51 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Photos of the way HVP is logging the Strzeleckis
6 May 2008
The latest photos of Hancock Victorian Plantations logging practicesin the Strzeleckis can be seen at http://www.hancock.forests.org.au/docs/08may.htm plus some of the latest press coverage.
Tags:
hancocks, rainforest, strzeleckis
Posted at: 02:57 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Deadline on Strzelecki deal still rubbery
3 May 2008
The deadline of May 2 imposed by Hancocks to finalise the deal for the Victorian State Government to buy-back the Cores & Links in the Strzeleckis has passed - but apparently the Government and the company are still talking.
It's hard to get any information out of them as the community has been excluded from the continuing negotiations. All we know from Minister Jennings' staff is that they "are in discussions to meet the Government's election commitments."
The deal won't be acceptable unless it broadly accords with the Heads of Agreement which was signed by all parties prior to the lengthy negotiations which led to the arrangement approved by the previous Environment Minister, John Thwaites, to hand over $7 million to the company to protect the key areas. The plan was announced as Government policy to establish a reserve which would be managed by Trust for Nature. That is still a non-negotiable position.
Persistent rumours from DS&E have been floating around for months that the Minister is preparing to hand the Cores and Links area over to Vic Forest (after it has been logged by Hancocks to meet the shortfall it claims it has in its contractual obligations to the Maryvale Pulp Mill). The 'shortfall' is one of those...
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Tags:
hancocks, logging, strzeleckis
Posted at: 12:48 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Time running out on Strzelecki deal
29 Apr 2008
Friends of the Earth and Friends of Gippsland Bush have announced concerns that the Cores and Links Deal to save Strzelecki Rainforest is no closer to resolution 18 months after a Heads of Agreement to protect the area was signed. Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP) and the State Government have until May 2 to sort out the deal before a recently extended deadline collapses.
FoE spokesman Anthony Amis said; "We're still in the dark. I mentioned to Minister Jennings' advisors three weeks ago that a round table meeting with all parties present would be the best way to go. I thought it a good idea to talk our way through this, but apparently this idea has fallen on deaf ears. We fear that a deal without community support will severely undermine the ecological integrity of the region."
"FoE has already expressed concern that HVP and DSE had cooked up a deal between themselves prior to the community even being involved in the process. This has been confirmed by a recent Freedom of Information (FoI) Request which explicity shows that DSE and HVP had agreed on 3 options several days before the community was first invited in to negotiations in May 2006."
"The...
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Tags:
hancocks, logging, rainforest, strzeleckis
Posted at: 04:00 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Government hides FOI documents on the Strzeleckis
30 Mar 2008
The attempt by Friends of the Earth to obtain relevant documents relating to actions (or inaction) by the Department of Sustainability and Environment on the Strzeleckis has met with only partial success. It's just one more example why the name of the Freedom of Information legislation should be changed to Freedom from Information. The Department has hidden over 300 pages of relevant documentation and handed over less than half of the many documents which track the way department officers tried to thwart Government policy and kill off any deal between Hancocks the community and the Government.
No doubt there will be another go through VCAT. Eventually the material will come to light.
Tags:
department of sustainability and environment, freedom of information, strzeleckis
Posted at: 09:40 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Revelations soon on the Strzeleckis
13 Mar 2008
It will soon become clear who has done what to whom on the Strzelecki's fiasco!
Requests for details of actions, under Freedom of Information were lodged by Friends of the Earth, and copies of letters and emails should be available in the next day or so.
It's hard to wait, because much of the duplicity is already known. Government employees have actively worked against the implementation of Government policy - but the details need to be made public before demands are made for the right heads to roll.
Roll on!
Tags:
hancocks, logging, strzeleckis, trust for nature
Posted at: 06:58 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Bodgy deal about to be announced for Strzeleckis - Government back-flip
15 Feb 2008
It's a red letter day! I managed to get a response from Minister Jennings' office. After hearing that DSE staff in Traralgon were saying the decision had been made to hand the Cores and Links over to VicForest - dumping Government policy for the sensitive areas to be managed by Trust for Nature - I emailed the Minister's Chief of Staff, Ben Hart.
The only reason for the response was that I copied in Age investigative journalist Richard Baker. Mr Hart didn't like that, saying it wouldn't do the cause any good. He claimed that "This is a very unfortunate situation and one we have been working very hard to resolve for some time.
But what the hell have they been working hard at? The previous Minister John Thwaites, thrashed out a deal over some years. The deal was accepted by the community and the company and it became Government policy - announced before the last election. All Mr Hart had to do was to oversee the implementation of the policy.
Instead of that, he and DSE staff have been running around working against policy to come up with a bodgy deal.
Tags:
rainforest, strzeleckis, trust for nature
Posted at: 06:48 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Time for heads to roll over Strzelecki scandal
11 Feb 2008
The pussy-footing around has to stop. The State Government made a decision well over a year ago to buy-back the Cores and Links from Hancocks for $7 million and the deal still hasn't been finalised because some of the staff in DS&E didn't like the Government policy.
What does it have to do with them? Isn't their role to carry out Government policy? If the Minister (Gavin Jennings) has dumped the policy, why won't he announce the change? If he hasn't, he needs to chop some of the deadwood in his Department who have been actively working against him.
Although it wasn't perfect, the community, including local Shires accepted the deal, the company approved it and Trust for Nature had worked to ensure it was successful.
Get on with it Minister!
Tags:
hancocks, logging, strzeleckis
Posted at: 07:31 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Strzelecki rainforest shambles
20 Nov 2007
Victoria's Environment Minister Gavin Jennings still appears to be sidelined by his own bureaucrats over the deal which will see the Government hand over $7 million to the US Hancock group to protect rainforest from logging in the Strzeleckis.
His own head of Department, Peter Harris has apparently said that he will make the decision (not the Minister) even though the agreement has been Government policy since before the last election. There is no 'decision' left to be made - the community is waiting for the decision to be implemented. The deal which involved management of areas known as the 'Cores and Links' was announced as part of the Government's election plaform, but apparently Peter Harris doesn't care.
Neither does the Gippsland Regional Manager of the Departnment of Sustainability and Environment who has openly said that he will not allow the policy to be implemented.
You'd wonder how these guys keep their jobs - unless of course Government policy has changed and the Minister can't be bothered to tell anyone!
Tags:
hancock, logging, rainforest, strzeleckis
Posted at: 07:57 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Test for new minister
13 Sep 2007
Gavin Jennings, the new Minister for the Environment is facing a serious threat to the Government's authority from his own bureacrats in Gippsland. The Gippsland Manager for DS&E has apparently told his staff that he will 'not allow' Government policy to be implemented in relation to management of the 'Cores and Links' agreement in the Strzeleckis.
Many of his own staff were aghast at his outburst because they believed that the outcome negotiated between Hancock, the community, local Shire's and the Government, had huge benefits for biodiversity.
The Manager had a tantrum because the land will be managed by Trust for Nature and not his boys. Pity he didn't help with the negotiations. It has taken 10 years to reach this stage - recognising the real value of some of the most important native vegetation in the region - and some Traralgon DS&E staff (with the help of some blockers in Melbourne) have done everything they can to screw it up.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for a 'shake-out' at DS&E Traralgon!
Tags:
cores and links, gavin jennings, strzeleckis
Posted at: 01:22 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink