From: The Mercury

Getting to the bottom of forest fears

14feb06

PROTESTERS opposed to logging in forests south of Hobart braved cool temperatures yesterday to send a stripped-down message.

About 20 members of the Camp Weld group cast off their clothes to spell out with their bodies their organisation's internet address on the lawns in front of Parliament House yesterday.

The protesters kept their positions to spell out "huon.org" and chanted slogans as curious passers-by shivered against the cool breeze and looked on.

Spokesman Warrick Jordan said the nude protest was about reflecting logging practices that "stripped bare" Tasmanian forests.

"We have a big issue with the way Forestry Tasmania and the Lennon Government are stripping our forests," he said.

The protesters are part of a larger group that has set up camps blocking the construction of a logging road into the Lower Weld Valley area, southwest of Huonville.

They say the road would open up for logging 2000ha of forest containing World Heritage values.

The group has built a mock pirate ship in the middle of a logging road as well as tree-sit and research stations in the upper canopy of the forest.

"It's an area of World Heritage-value forests," Mr Jordan said.

Activists from interstate and overseas have recently joined the local protesters at the forest camp