Strzelecki Rainforest Reserve Now Cops Herbicide Spraying July 2012
http://hancockwatch.nfshost.com/docs/12july.htm
The Strzelecki Ranges (located 150km south east of Melbourne) once contained some of the largest trees and one of the largest stands of cool temperate rainforest on planet earth. That situation changed forever in the late 19th century with the logging and torching of the region. Now remnant vegetation is retained only on the eastern side of the ranges. The Strzelecki's is one of the most depleted bioregions in Victoria.
To turn this dire situation around, local environmentalists Elaina Fraser and Susie Zent began mapping the remnant rainforest of the region in the mid 1990's. It took them seven years to complete this enourmous task! A result of their mapping work was the concept of a rainforest reserve stretching along the backbone of the ranges from Gunyah Gunyah in the west to Tarra Bulga in the east. The 8500ha reserve would include almost all of the remnant rainforest and eucalypt buffers remaining in the region and would provide a contiguous link of native vegetation stretching almost 30km.
In October 2006, the vision became reality when Minister John Thwaites announced the creation of the reserve. The reserve was supported by a number of environmental groups, three local shires and the two main timber interests in the region, Hancock Victorian Plantations and Australian Paper, owner of Australia's largest pulp and paper mill at Maryvale in the Latrobe River.
However, Hancock was not entirely happy with the reserve and with the backing of new environment minister Gavan Jennings, a new concept for the reserve was announced in May 2008. Remarkably this new concept was publicly supported by The Wilderness Society and Victorian National Parks Association. The new agreement would allow for the clearfell logging of approximately 900 hectares inside the reserve, including the logging of over 300 hectares in College Creek a site of National Conservation Significance. Needless to say many community members and environmentalists were horrified by this turn of events.
Since 2008, hundreds of hectares of forest have been clearfelled. The new agreement would allow for a once only logging of the reserve, with the logged land then retired from production and added to the states reserve system. The deal was of course guarded in governmental and corporate secrecy and local campaigners still don't know how the reserve is to be protected at all. Fears are that the logged land will end up being logged again in 30 years time. These fears are founded on the agreement allowing for the hand back of the land, only when hundreds of young Eucalypts are seen to be regenerating back on the logged land.
Observations in July 2012, show that hundreds of hectares of regenerating land within the reserve are now being sprayed with herbicides. One can only summise that such spraying is occurring to knock out the natural species in order to facilitate hand planting of eucalypts. Local campaigners believe it would be far more prudent to let nature take its course and allow the logged over land to regenerate naturally with no more human interventions. Local campaigners are also urging immediate reservation of what is left in the Cores and Links Reserve.
Logging of the reserve also endangers the only remaining Victorian populations of genetically robust Koalas. All other Koalas in Victoria are the result of inbreeding and translocations. Earlier this year Minister Peter Ryan handed over $1.3 million to local Landcare groups in South Gippsland for tree planting and fences. These grants were largely in his electorate and a large percentage of the grants were supposedly based on restoring Koala habitat. Unfortunately such replanting will pale into insignificance when one compares the amount of koala habitat being wiped out by Hancock Victorian Plantations in upper elevations of the Strzelecki Ranges.
Comments
Time we the people took back the reins
I'm truly shocked this is going on - I've been a permaculturalist for 30 years and have developed a system of 'enrichment planting' of endemic bush foods and medicines in old-regrowth - highly successful and regenerates complex habitat much faster than natural regeneration - p/c is all about just giving Almighty Nature a helpiong hand... I've been fighting the mentality that "knocks back" regrowth for decades and I'm so utterly SICK TO DEATH of it - time we the good people took back our sovereign authority* and stopped these ecocidal maniacs!
(Hence JUST PEOPLE.. . the platform for 2-tier government - will send details next )
From: mbrannan4@bigpond.com [mailto:mbrannan4@bigpond.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2012 11:40 AM
To: South Burnett Times - Stories & Letters; South Burnett Times - Acting Editor
Subject: Letter to Editor - Time we took back the reins
Time we took back the reins
Good news from Jay Nauss – I’ve been trying to get governments to read my emails for years ... and they’re welcome to track my internet use if they wish, although to monitor all of us would be a massive waste of time and tax-payers money to pay the swelling ranks of bureaucrats.
And it matters not which party is currently in power – they’re all the same – its the bloated, unproductive bureaucracies of the federal and state centralised governments that is the problem. They used to be the public’s servants whose only purpose was to distribute our taxes fairly and enact the laws we want, but now they deem themselves to be our all-powerful masters - more fool us for ceding our sovereignty to them. Its we the grass roots who run this country – we do all the work, we grow the food, we care for the sick, we keep everything running smoothly in our communities...we produce – they produce little more than hot air. A solutin would be to dismantle the state & territory governments and reform our democracy into two (preferably a-political) tiers; a greatly reduced federal government bureaucracy taking instruction from Regional Governments, autonomous regions whose boundaries are based on the major water catchments, aligning with the First Nation’s boundaries and informed by Indigenous knowledge. Billions of dollars will be instantly retrieved to go directly into local communities.
Its well past time we the people took back the reins and placed the bit firmly in the federal government’s mouth.
M Brannan, Murgon
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Maureen Brannan 905 Wilsons Road CLOYNA Q 4605 ph: 04 277 10523
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Replying to Letter to Editor SBT 24.7.12
New Issue
Comrade Julia’s regime is set to take on a new issue.
This time it is internet spying and the intention is to legalise the keeping of all emails and webpages that Australians send and access.
We are told this is to prevent and/or monitor terrorism. Like the gun laws that were instigated by the Hoard regime, we were told it would reduce crime. However, the opposite has occurred with more shootings than every before. [RUBBISH]
The laws fell on the backs of honest Australians and are ignored by the criminal elements who have no difficulty in procuring arms for their criminal activities.
Internet spying is not to prevent terrorism, but to monitor the communications of honest Australians. In fact no doubt it has been happening for some time with ASIO doing the spying. The government just wants to legalise their spying.
Citizens must resist this latest planned intrusion into their private affairs.
Jay Nauss, Glen Aplin
Arms rights distorted
From: The Australian July 24, 2012 12:00AM WITH another massacre in the US, it's worth noting something I've been pointing to for years when Americans talk about the constitutional "right to bear arms".
The second amendment was written and formalised at a time when the original colonies didn't have a standing army and defence was dependent on the farmers, yeomen and artisans having their weapons ready to go and taking pride of place over the fireplace. That's the context in which the second amendment is predicated. "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed".
When Americans talk about the right to bear arms in the 21st century, it's a distortion of the constitutional context.
Jim Ball, Narrabeen, NSW