Survey shows many opposed to logging
A survey of more than 100 people at a gathering in Noojee showed strong opposition to log forest close to the town.
The proposal by VicForests to permit logging of coupes within several hundred metres of Noojee has been legally challenged by an environmental organisation and is scheduled for a court hearing in February.
Noojee resident David Clarke of the Friends of Noojee Tress group said 107 people were surveyed. Seventy five per cent of respondents were opposed, 15 per cent in favour and 10 per cent did not have an opinion.
Mr Clarke said 63 per cent of the respondents lived in Baw Baw shire.
Their opposition was slightly less pronounced than the overall figure that included people that were non-resident owners. The vote of non-residents was 90 per cent against the logging. One in five locals supported the proposed logging.
Mr Clarke said the conduct of the survey took advantage of the number of people in Noojee to attend a CFA open day providing information on how to be fire ready for the summer bushfire danger.
He said the views expressed appeared to have policy implications for both Baw Baw Shire Council and the State government and the issue of exempting towns in the bush from nearby logging.
Mr Clarke highlighted the council’s “Visit Baw Baw” website that promotes Noojee with a moving aerial image of a river weaving between hills thickly covered by mature mountain ash bush.
He said the government’s “Travel Victoria” website described the town as being surrounded by dense mountain forests.
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A tree sit to try to disrupt logging near Mt Baw Baw was set up by a protester last Wednesday.
It was the second such blockade in the area in the past two months.
A community group Forest Conservation Victoria that wants all native forest logging ceased in Victoria claimed to be behind the sit ins.
Spokesperson Christine Schuringa said the protestor was in a makeshift shelter about 20 metres above the ground and claimed the action was halting machines from logging.
She did not know how long the sit in would continue but said the September blockade ended after several days as a result of intervention by “authorities”.
Ms Schuringa admitted to The Gazette last week that it was “not legal” for an unauthorised person to be in a forest coupe and that the length the latest protest continued “depended on what happened”.
She also acknowledged that Forest Conservation Victoria was not a legally constituted organisation but a group of like-minded volunteers.
Ms Schuringa claimed that deforestation and forest degradation at Mt Baw Baw was contributing to “rapid global temperature increase”.
She questioned how the government agency VicForests allowed logging in face of mounting concerns around climate change and dwindling habitats of endangered species.
Referring to the coupe where a similar sit in was staged in September Ms Schuringa said the area “has since been destroyed” with only four trees measuring eight metres in diameter left standing.
The group would continue to take action until forests are protected, she said.
The Gazette sought comment VicForests. from