FOREST campaigner Keri James, her six-year-old daughter Clover and support crew made it over Doctor George Mountain just in time for the gig at the Tanja Hall on Saturday night.
Keri and Clover are walking from their home city of Canberra to Tasmania in a “walk against woodchipping”, a journey of more than 1000 kilometres.
The plan is to arrive in Melbourne on November 22 and then continue on for a few more miles through Tasmania’s forests.
Along the way, Keri has spread her message against woodchipping while talking to people about the use of forest timber for woodchipping in the Eden chipmill.
On Wednesday, September 24, she plans to be at the chipmill to count trucks entering with previous counts of up to 160 trucks in a day.
The walkers participated in a family-friendly concert at the Tanja Hall on Saturday night that drew a large crowd to the food and music by local and visiting artists.
Wallaga Lake artist Warren Foster and other Aboriginal musicians performed alongside the Andy and George Band, that consists of local and Canberra musicians on walk against woodchips support crew.
Part of the proceeds from the gig will go to groups such as South East Forest Rescue, who plan to campaign against the logging of State Forest compartments 2004 and 2005 located to the south of the Bermagui to Cobargo road.
State Forests is preparing to log the area in upcoming months with mainly spotted gum being harvested for a mix of timber some of which will be going to the chipmill.
Conservation groups have argued the area has high biodiversity value and includes a previous koala sighting, while State forests says the forests were logged 20 years ago and have been surveyed for wildlife.
South East Forest Rescue and Friends of Five Forests have called for community consultation as required by the Regional Forestry Agreement and held a planning meeting in Bermagui on Saturday.
The group says it hopes to stop the logging on the basis of biodiversity, saying logging practices do endanger the forest with not enough habitat trees retained and problems such as Bell Miner dieback harming any forest remaining in gullies and buffer zones not logged.
The groups also argue the value of the forest as a carbon sink, a requirement to help slow climate change recognised in recent reports.
The SEFR member who locked himself to a logging truck on the main street of Bega on the day of Prime Minister John Howard’s visit last year is about to hear his verdict in his case in Bega court.
Questions for Forests NSW about the upcoming logging at Bermagui:
What is the size of the proposed logging area?
The gross area is 428 hectares, net area planned for harvesting approximately 185 hectares.
What percentage of logs will be high quality timber processed at Boral Narooma sawmill or other sawmills, what percentage is veneer and what percentage is chipmill?
Approximately 70 per cent will be high quality logs. This includes veneer, poles, piles and girders which will be delivered to various specialist mills in NSW; and sawlogs, a large proportion of which will be delivered to Blue Ridge Hardwoods at Eden.
The remaining 30 per cent will be pulpwood, largely generated from the heads and butts of trees felled to produce sawlogs.
What species harvested?
The species mix is dominated by spotted gum in association with mixed eucalypt species including stringybark, ironbark, silvertop ash and coastal grey box.
When will it begin and what more community consultation is there yet to take place?
More consultation will take place with various community figures and organisations before a harvest date is determined.
Anti-forestry meetings
Public meetings in Bega and Bermagui on the weekend have demanded that the Government recognise the carbon stored in native forests and stops logging them.
The forums, organized by the South East Conservation Alliance (SERCA) heard expert speakers, Margaret Blakers from The Green Institute and Dr Judith Ajani, ANU economist and author of “The Forest Wars” explain the new science and politics around the climate change issue.
About 130 people attended the two forums
Ms Blakers stressed the importance of Australia adopting full carbon accounting and argued for a way to enable both developed and developing countries to reap an economic benefit from the carbon storage potential of their forests.
Dr Ajani provided an analysis of trends in the timber industry which show that Australia has enough plantation resource to allow an end to native forest logging.
Other speakers were Suzanne Foulkes, resident of Bermagui area for 30 years who shared her own observations on the impacts of logging on local waterways and wildlife. Chris Allen, a koala expert, talked about the state of local koala populations and the importance of corridors between populations.
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