A damning new report has revealed Victoria’s state-owned logging agency, VicForests, is failing to regrow native forests after logging. Watch the video, read the report & share with your local MP below.
The logging industry claims to "grow back" the native forests it destroys – but this new report exposes their lies.
We joined 18 other environment groups from across Victoria to co-publish ‘After the Logging,' a damning new report that exposes VicForests' failure to regrow native forests.
The report is based on the government’s own data and finds that 1 in 3 areas that are logged fail to regenerate within 3 years.
For Mountain Ash forests, a critically endangered ecosystem, half of the areas logged are failing to regenerate within 3 years. Even areas that have passed the state government’s dodgy regeneration benchmarks are failing to grow back into forests – and are being left as weed-infested wastelands of blackberries and bracken.
The Andrews government announced an end to native forest logging by 2030. We won't have any forests left standing by then – and now its been confirmed that the ones we've already lost could be gone forever.
Native forests are critical for wildlife, a safe climate, water security, biodiversity, and preserving First Nations cultural values. Our precious forests are being turned into bare moonscapes, lacking diversity and completely unsuitable habitat for wildlife.
Victorian communities cherish the bush and want to see our unique native forests looked after. Instead, we are watching biodiverse forests, home to so many threatened wildlife, being obliterated – to the point they might never recover and be wiped out of existence.
These forests are running out of time. The government opens up a new area of publicly owned forests for logging every 3 days. The transition out of native forest logging must urgently be brought forward and custodianship of Bush Country must be returned to Traditional Custodians.
ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE
1. Download the full report below HERE & send it to your local MP.
2.Call/email the decision makers about the report & ask them to bring forward the transition.
Premier Dan Andrews
(03) 9651 5000
Environment minister Lily D'Ambrosio
(03) 9637 9504
Agricultural minister Mary Anne Thomas
(03) 8392 2261
3. Join our Forests Collective to organise with us & defend Victoria's remaining native forests.
RSVP to our next all-in collective meeting.
4. Share the ABC coverage of the report with these hashtags.
#VicForestsFail #LoggingKillsForests
5. Donate or sign up as a monthly member to support the Forests Collective's work.
