04 July, 2010

LETTER: The bones will tell the story

Sarah Rees, executive director, My Environment, Healesville
Letter, The Age, 3 July 2010

VICFOREST chief executive David Pollard claims ''all trees harvested in Toolangi had dated from 1939 bushfire regrowth and no possums had been affected'' - ''Green groups in logging case bid'' (The Age, 1/7).

We may have a different picture. Beneath a large, smashed tree in the logging zone lies the burnt remains of what looks to be a small marsupial. We exhumed some skeletal remains, bone-white against the charred soil, from the coupe burn. The skeleton is at a veterinary clinic, awaiting analysis. It may be an eastern pygmy possum, a bobuck possum, a ringtail possum or even a Leadbeater's possum.

This forest had many possums and as many gliders again - the Department of Sustainability and Environment's maps shows this. These bones may tell the story of the logging disaster that took place in this possum's home. But let us leave it for the judge to decide.





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