Anti-logging activist rests on the stump of a logged ancient tree, 25th March 2009. A group of 20 forest conservationists are preventing the clearfelling of one of the last stands of old growth forest in the upper Delegate River catchment in East Gippsland. Members of the group have prevented six logging machines from working using a complicated series of tripod structures, cables and a tree platform. Note the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society garb. hermetic.blog.com

By JENNIE CURTIN
March 30, 2010 LOGGING has started in a forest containing the only known colony of koalas on the far south coast, despite warnings the work could threaten the marsupials. Forests NSW began harvesting timber for woodchipping and high-quality logs in the Mumbulla State Forest near Bega. Work is expected to continue for six months. Conservationists, with the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, the Wilderness Society and the Australian Koala Foundation, are setting up a vigil at the site this morning in an effort to stop the logging. Locals said just last week they had found koala tracks on roads close to the work area. But Forests NSW said koalas had been found in the east of the forest, not in the logging area, which is further west. The fashion designer Prue Acton, who has battled to protect the koalas and who recently discovered a bugging device, which she believes is linked to her campaigning, on her telephone at her home near Bega, said the work could destroy the patch of habitat left in the area. ”This decision by Premier Keneally to log these critical regional koala habitats comes down to a few jobs in a dying industry and faulty regional forests agreements which fail wildlife, climate and water,” Ms Acton said. ”What about the extinction of these regional koalas, the sustainability of forests and, ultimately, the planet – our children’s future?” …

Logging starts, koala battle goes on