Blue Derby Wild has commenced legal action in the Supreme Court of Tasmania against the Forest Practices Authority and Sustainable Timber Tasmania over the legality of logging in Krushka’s forests.
The Tasmanian government has admitted that logging has been taking place in our forests unlawfully over many years. We believe we have current evidence in the logging of the iconic Krushka’s forests as to the extent to which native forest logging as overseen by the Forest Practices Authority and Sustainable Timber Tasmania is unlawful. Specifically with the Forest Practices Plan (FPP) issued for each forest ‘coupe’ to be logged being invalid, as the individual assigned to sign off on these FPP’s and logging do not have proper delegation to do so.
We filed for an application for an interlocutory injunction on Friday April 8, which had the specific need for an immediate halt of all logging and forestry activities in both the Krushka’s forests which are active logging coupes, to protect evidence that is lost when machinery and logs are moved in the forest. Our scout teams on Saturday April 9 recorded evidence of Sustainable Timbers Tasmania failing to respect the injunction application, and exacerbating the unlawful logging taking place by continuing to log.
Blue Derby Wild have been working for many years to stop the logging of forests in the north east, including the Krushka’s forests that hold the iconic Blue Derby MTB trails of the same name. We have frequently raised issues with the way in which the FPP’s are developed, the failure to consult the community, failure to take on feedback from local businesses, failure to protect recorded rare, threatened and endangered species and specific examples of high habitat trees and seed trees being logged in the Krushka’s forests.
This case will shine the light on the failures of the Forest Practices Authority, Sustainable Timber Tasmania, and the Tasmanian government’s ongoing failures in carrying out unlawful native forest logging in Krushka’s, and by implication across Tasmania.
To find out how you can support this work go to our campaign site bluederbywild.org or follow the link