06 June, 2006

LETTER: Missing the logging message

Fiona Nelson, Otway Conservation Council, Apollo Bay

The Age ( letter) 6/6/06

Some 15,000 people rallied in Melbourne on Sunday to protect Victoria's old-growth, high-conservation forests and water catchments from woodchipping.

The message at the rally was loud and clear. Unfortunately, The Age (5/6), appears to have largely missed this message. It used the rally to advertise Steve Bracks' campaign to reduce power use — as important as the water use reduction campaign — thus diverting attention away from the fact that forested catchments continue to be logged primarily for woodchips.

Logging reduces water supply by as much as 50 per cent, yet the Bracks Government continues to allow our forested water catchments across Victoria to be cleared, while producing a sustainable water strategy that ensures that demand for water will exceed supply in the next 20 years for Melbourne, Ballarat and Geelong.

The Premier did say that logging has been reduced by 30 per cent over the past 6½ years. Not good enough, Mr Bracks. Protect our forests, our water, our air and our wildlife. End native forest logging now.

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