2008-11-23
Local and other community members campaigning to save over 800 hectares of rare, pristine forest in WA’s southwest have set up a tree platform and sustainable community camp in the Chester forest block after camping on nearby private property for the last few months. The move comes as the Forest Products Commission (FPC) starts to mark out Dieback infected areas and logging roads into the coupe. A callout has been made to all to get down and support the campaign.
After several months on private property near Margaret River, the Chester Forest Rescue Camp has moved into the forest as the logging date draws closer and the FPC begins to mark out logging areas and roads within the coup. A tree platform has been erected and a community camp set up on the edge of the coupe for what is expected to be an ongoing campaign to save over 800 hectares of a world recoginsed biodiversity hotspot.
Chester Forest Block is situated South of the Blackwood River in WA’s southwest, approximately 40km’s south-east from the town of Margaret River. It is comprised predominately of Jarrah and Marri(Redgum) woodland with seasonally wet lowland and a patch of Karri towards the middle of the coupe. There is a high number of threatened and priority endemic plant species (species that only occur within the local plant community) with Chester Forest having a very high degree of species richness. A large patch of forest within the coupe and surrounding Nature Reserve remains uninfected from Phytopthera dieback ( see http://www.dwg.org.au/index.cfm?objectid=2C607FE0-C09F-1F3C-C87C8B2114B042F3) which threatens to destroy and degrade much of the Forest. The FPC plans to log right in the middle of the uninfected, healthy forest. Logging the forest and all the disturbance that comes with it (Machinery, altered water flow, roads etc.) will only accelerate the spread of Dieback within Chester and surrounding pristine forest and woodland. Logging is expected to commence in early January.
With the effects of logging on Climate Change, increase salinity, and ecosystem collapse now well documented, and 85 percent of WA’s native forests already gone, it is unacceptable that native forests continue to be logged for tiny (sometime negative) profits for industry and government departments. It is now well known that our forests provide much more than just wood. They provide us with clean air, water, healthy soil and stable ecosystems to support life as we know it.
Come and join the campaign to save Chester Forest and build the community voice that is needed to stop the logging of our precious natural resources.
Get in touch with the Margaret River Environment Centre (Ph/fax. 9758 8078)
Or call 0422535328 for more info and directions to camp.
(a map will be posted soon for directions to camp)
Western Australian Forest Alliance
Global Warming Forest Group