From Earth First! Journal

Wild Ancient Forests and Pristine Rivers
Protecting the Weld Valley

by Jenny Weber

The Weld Valley is one of many wilderness areas in southern Tasmania, Australia, that are slated for destruction to produce wood chips for export, pulping or power. But residents are putting up a hell of a fight. For more than five years, the valley has been a site of direct-action, ecological resistance to a proposed logging road, which would enable the felling of nearly 5,000 acres of pristine, ancient eucalyptus forest. In January 2005, forest defenders established a blockade that eventually helped win a six-month moratorium on road construction by Forestry Tasmania - a government business enterprise that manages 3.7 million acres of the state's public forests.

When that moratorium expired in September 2005, activists returned to Camp Weld, where they remain one year later. The camp is a constantly evolving entity; activists and artists have built a fort, treesits, monopods, tripods, dragons, living quarters, artistic sculptures and the Weld Ark, a magnificent full-size, road-blocking pirate ship! More than 50 people helped defend the camp during the Summer of 2005-2006, and over the last 18 months, the Weld blockade has attracted activists, artists, researchers, media and travelers from more than 20 countries. It's a powerful local response to a state-wide problem.

Loggers: The Real Tasmanian Devils

Tasmania, the wild southern island, is Australia's poorest and smallest state. It is a place where government and its corporate friends are in the throes of industrial colonization, where forestry rights for 20 years are sold to Malaysian logging companies at today's prices, where the wholesale destruction of ecosystems and grave loss of habitat continue to rob Tasmania of its world heritage values. Tasmania is the only state in Australia that clearcuts rainforest; most other states are phasing out native forest logging altogether.

Tasmania also exports more wood chips than all other states combined, even though the demand for the export is falling as Indonesia and South America become sources of cheaper wood chips. Thus, a new wood-fired power station and pulp mill have been proposed in order to prop up the terminally ailing Tasmanian wood-chip industry. Gunns Ltd., the largest logging company in Australia and the largest hardwood wood-chip exporter in the world, has proposed a pulp mill for northeast Tasmania, demanding 30-year access to Tasmania's native forests in return. If this proposal is approved, it will mean that Gunns' level of wood-chipping in Tasmania will leap from the current five million tons per year to nearly eight million tons per year.

Gunns is already decimating Tasmania's native forests and raking in the profits. To add insult to injury, in some forests, only 30 percent of the trees are removed to chip mills. The remaining 70 percent of the felled vegetation is considered waste and firebombed with a napalm-like substance. Smoke from a recent "regeneration burn" in northeast Tasmania was so thick that schools and major highways were forced to close. And now, this kind of total destruction is threatening to engulf the Weld Valley.

A Precious Ecology

The Weld River flows wild and undisturbed for 30 miles from the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area - a region recognized by the United Nations to include some of the "most important and significant natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity." The Weld Valley has been recognized by numerous national and international experts as possessing the same natural significance and the same need for protection as the adjacent world heritage area. The temperate rainforest - replete with myrtle-beech, sassafras, leatherwood, celery-top pine, eucalyptus and many other plant species - is situated in valleys with large creeks and small river systems. Some of these species are not found anywhere else in the world and date back to the prehistoric supercontinent of Gondwana. The region also contains one of the largest karst areas (i.e., eroded limestone containing fissures, sinkholes, caverns and underground streams) in Tasmania, including Australia's deepest cave. Another cave presents evidence of human occupation in the Weld Valley as early as 20,000 years ago, at the height of the last ice age - the southern-most evidence of human presence during that era.

The Weld Valley and the surrounding forests are also home to many threatened animal species. The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle - Australia's largest bird of prey - is an iconic and critically endangered subspecies with fewer than 1,000 individuals left in the wild. Nevertheless, Forestry Tasmania continues to log near crucial nesting sites, leaving just a small and insufficient 25-acre buffer. Current practices provide a patchwork landscape for an eagle whose territory should span an area as large as 20 to 750 square miles, depending upon the availability of food. In 2004, a Forestry Tasmania-commissioned study modelled the future of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle over the next 200 years. The study concluded that the eagle faces an extinction risk of 62 percent from human-induced causes, excluding logging. With logging factored in, the likelihood of extinction exceeds 90 percent. The Weld Valley and similar old-growth wilderness areas are critical habitat for this majestic eagle.

Turning Anger into Action

The high conservation value of the Weld Valley and the surrounding old-growth forests has spurred the local community into action against Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Ltd. The campaign to protect the southern forests, including the Weld Valley, is spearheaded by the local Huon Valley Environment Center (HVEC). The anger of the Tasmanian community regarding ongoing forest destruction has resulted in increased frontline ecodefense, as demonstrated by the formation and escalating activities of direct-action groups, such as Save the Weld Action Group and the Forest Defense Unit. Fourteen forest-defense actions have occurred in southern Tasmania's Weld, Picton, Denison and Styx forests since February. In the Styx Valley, a treesitter occupied a 250-foot-tall eucalyptus tree for 50 days, until he was arrested and removed via police helicopter.

Direct action has also spread to Hobart, the state capital. On May 18, 20 activists occupied Forestry Tasmania's headquarters in order to draw attention to the clearcutting of the Weld and Styx valleys, and to highlight the plight of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle. The atrium of the headquarters is designed to look like an indoor rainforest. Activists made this rainforest more realistic by playing a loop of eagle calls and revving chainsaws over a sound system. Four people locked down to various points around the atrium, including the top of a 65-foot-tall elevator shaft and a walkway at the top of atrium. After four hours, five people were arrested on trespassing charges.

Currently, Gunns is suing 20 defendants, including environmentalists, community members, a dentist, a doctor, a senator, a member of parliament, HVEC and the Wilderness Society. The company is seeking $5 million in damages, claiming that the defendants have conspired to defame its character and impair its business. The Gunns lawsuit is an attempt to silence the debate about the destruction of forests. The state government claims to be protecting both the forests and jobs. Meanwhile, the federal government has left the forests to fend for themselves, claiming to have solved the debate in Tasmania.

On the ground, activists are not convinced. Napalm clouds from recent regeneration burns burst through our sunny days. Logging companies race to clearcut the forests surrounding wedge-tailed eagle nest sites before breeding season starts. Wood-fired power stations and native-forest pulp mills funded by the state government continue through the planning stages. Help stop the destruction!

For more information, contact Huon Valley Environmental Centre, 3/17 Wilmot Rd, Huonville, Tasmania, Australia 7109; 03 6264 1286; centre@huon.org; www.huon.org/weldvalley; www.gunns20.org; www.forestdefenceunit.org.

Jenny is a longtime forest activist and mother who works for the protection of Tasmania's ancient southern forests. She is also a founding member of the Huon Valley Environment Center, Jenny currently lives with her daughter and partner on a 1.5-square-mile private wildlife reserve in southern Tasmania.

This article appeared in Volume 26 Issue 6.