Ciancio media

The ABC
Public to inspect illegal logging in Otways: conservationists

Conservationists are expecting between 50 and 100 members of the public will inspect what they claim is an illegal logging operation in the Otways.

They say the logging in the Ciancio logging coupe, endorsed by the Environment Minister Sherryl Garbutt, is threatening to kill myrtle beech trees in the area.

The spokesperson for the Otways Environment network, Simon Birrell, says all the Otway myrtle beech trees are under threat.

"There's been a lot of research done to show that increased wounding rates of the myrtle-beech trees elevate a disease called myrtle wilt which is threatening most of the Otways cool-temperate rainforests, with extinction," Mr Birrell said.

The Age
Moratorium on contentious Otways logging

Source: AAP|Published: Wednesday April 18, 11:57 AM

A moratorium had been placed on a Victorian logging area where police and protesters had clashed, state Environment Minister Sherryl Garbutt said today.

At least six protesters were arrested and others took to the trees to stop logging in the Ciancio forest coup, in the Otways Ranges on Victoria's south-west coast.

"In the interests of public safety and to reduce tensions between police and protesters logging in Ciancio coup in the Otways, where there was protest yesterday, will be suspended today," Ms Garbutt said.

Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN) spokesman Simon Birrell said 18 people had been charged with obstructing logging since environmentalists began blockading the site near Lavers Hill on April 6.

Mr Birrell said forestry officers from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) had failed to complete "action statements" covering the protection of rainforest and the fungal disease myrtle wilt, as required by the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

The Ciancio coup buffers nearby rainforest from disturbance, including infection from myrtle wilt, said Mr Birrell.
Logging in the coup contravenes the Act which forbids spreading myrtle wilt, he said.

The environmentalists have also said they had a memorandum of understanding with Ms Garbutt and the timber industry not to log in Ciancio if the protesters withdrew from other areas in the Otways.

"The minister cannot seriously expect conservationists to meet for negotiations after she and her departmental bureaucrats failed to honour past agreements, destroying any chance of trust and goodwill."

Further comment from Ms Garbutt was being sought.

ABC - Western Vic
Otway protesters win temporary logging ban

The Victorian Government denies a temporary ban on logging in the Otways is a victory for protesters.

Logging in the Ciancio coup will cease for 24 hours after protesters clashed with police yesterday and several arrests were made.

Protesters are being called on to suggest alternative coups for logging during the moratorium.

However, the Minister for Conservation, Sherryl Garbutt, denies the protesters have won, saying logging will resume tomorrow if necessary.

"We'll have to meet our timber commitments and we'll be asking the protesters to suggest alternative coupes," she said.

"So far they have been unable to suggest alternative sources of that timber and that's why we've been logging in this particular coupe."

Greg Hocking of the Otway Ranges Environment Network says the Minister's action is not enough.

"All she's said is it's suspended for today," he said.

"We'll remain there (until) she gives us in writing, and it's signed, an undertaking she will not be logging in any more contentious coupes in the Otway."

ABC - Melbourne

Department defends Otways logging

The Department of Natural Resources says logging will have to resume in the Otways because the Department has contracts to honour.

Ian Miles, the manager of the departments Forests Management Division, said protestors who stopped logging yesterday acted dangerously, but at no stage did his staff endanger any protestors.

This morning the Minister, Sherryl Garbutt, suspended logging at Ciancio coupe for a day.

Mr Miles said the logging would continue.

"It's not a light matter to just simply forego what you've committed to do.

"Now rightly or wrongly, that's what's happened."

Herald Sun

Editorial - Jobs versus trees

The Victorian Government has taken a soft option over the stand-off between loggers and protesters in the Otways.

It has declared a 24 hour moratorium after heated clashes between protesters and police and Department of Natural Resources and Environment officers. Thus Environment Minister Sherryl Garbutt has barred loggers exercising their legal right to do their job.

Since the protest began on April 6 about 18 protestors have been arrested and face charges which include hindering a lawful forest operation. Ms Garbutt denies that the Government had earlier agreed with protesters to bar logging from contentious forest coupes. She says that this would have denied mills sufficient timber. Thus, under pressure from employers and workers in an industry facing job losses, the Government have the go-ahead.

It follows that, whatever the merits of logging these areas, as long as it is legal the Government must ensure work can go ahead free from illegal interference.

Herald Sun

Andrew Bolt's comment - A Dark side to the forest struggle

I hate to criticise Sherryl Garbutt for caving in to protesters, when her job is such a nightmare. It's tough being Victoria's Environment Minister and overseeing the logging industry, when many in her own Labor Party thing that cutting down any tree is a sin.

Until now Garbutt has held reasonably firm, and protesters blocking loggers in the Otways have been arrested. But yesterday she postponed logging in the disputed coupes to "lower the temperature". she even asked protesters to identify more acceptable coupes.

This is a win for a handful of unaccountable extremists who have used illegal methods of protest to block logging arrangements made by elected politicians after careful community consultation. The government earned the right to make those arrangements by getting us to vote for them. The only right the protesters have was won through might alone.

The losers aren't just the loggers who could lose their jobs. Democracy also suffers.

(OREN's response to Andrew Bolt)

The Age
Safety move halts logging in Otways

The Age
Activists thwart Otway logging again

Environmentalists have claimed a short-term victory after they again thwarted logging at a contentious forest coup in Victoria's Otway Ranges today. Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN) spokesman Simon Birrell said 40 protesters remained at Ciancio coup, near Lavers Hill, on the state's south-west coast. Ten of them were positioned in "tree-sits", connected by an intricate pattern of cables threaded through the trees to prevent logging.

Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) officers had inspected the site today and judged it too dangerous to log, Mr Birrell said."You basically can't log if protesters are on the site," he said.

OREN scouts were at large throughout the Otway Ranges in case loggers moved into other environmentally sensitive areas. "They may decide to log another contentious coup," Mr Birrell said.

Environment Minister Sherryl Garbutt suspended logging at the site for 24 hours yesterday for safety reasons after police arrested at least six people on Tuesday.

No police accompanied DNRE officers to the site today, Mr Birrell said.

Earlier today, a spokeswoman for Ms Garbutt said the government would assess its options over the next few days if protesters again blocked the site. Ms Garbutt has said the government was bound under licence to guarantee a logging quota of mountain ash to local Colac sawmill. But Mr Birrell said only 900 cubic metres were outstanding and it would be cheaper for the government to compensate the sawmill than pay for police and DNRE forest officers to break up the blockade.

The environmentalists have accused Ms Garbutt of reneging on a peace deal last year, under which they gave up blockading most logging areas in the Otways as long as contentious coups were spared the chainsaw. "We honoured our part of the agreement, they haven't honoured theirs," Mr Birrell said.

The protesters were still prepared to negotiate but no longer trusted Ms Garbutt and DNRE bureaucrats. "If the Premier (Steve Bracks) wants dialogue and he calls (a meeting) we're ready to sort something out," Mr Birrell said.

Comment was being sought from Ms Garbutt and the DNRE.