He also agreed both Marri and Jarrah need to be 200+ in age before suitable breeding hollows are created and those hollows are also under threat from feral bees, invasion by introduced species like pink and grey galahs which once were never seen in the South West and logging and regrowth will never meet that need. His attempt at humour in saying you could probably get Carnabys to breed in a bucket fell very flat – when he went on to say the food resources of Carnabys ARE highly threatened because of clearing for roads AND development and suggested we should be building on degraded farm land and not clearing bush when there is plenty of cleared land already available. He made no comment on the video of the Forestry Products Commission deliberately poisoning Marri trees by the 1000s, the primary food source of Black Cockatoos. http://youtu.be/ItILkPwGQYE

He concluded by saying “if we can’t save Carnabys (which breed every year), we can’t save anything”. He agreed the devastating fires of the 2011/2012 summer have ravaged great areas of food resources for Black Cockatoos and I refer you to Beth Schulz’ aerial photo of burnt forest which, which after two months, shows why even Dr. Ron Johnson is calling for logging to cease.

Your comments about eco-tourism carefully omit the tree top walk being genuine old growth forest – not regrowth. Tourists would not be welcome in Warrup – because prior to the FPC allowing logging in the wet last week, it was free of dieback. Whether that remains the case, we will see. Tourists go where they are taken or where they are sent. I doubt any of them are being sent by the tourist operators to view the results of the prescribed burns which got out of control.

Tourism doesn’t demand to go to the forest. It has actually fallen in the southwest since the area of national parks was doubled. Tourists don’t visit Warrup, this is just hot air that conservationists make up, no-one had ever heard of it until 3 weeks ago. Tourists go to the iconic areas – Big Brook Dam (regrowth), Boranup National Park (regrowth), and the tree top walk. In any case about two thirds of the forest is in reserves. There are ample areas avail for the small amount of ecotourism that exists.

Notions that fauna will no longer exist because of timber cutting are a complete fallacy. After 150 years of the timber industry there is no species which has become extinct as a result. The greens try to pretend that the cockatoos are starving because of Warrup. They were told by the cockatoo expert to stop exaggerating and that cockatoos aren’t starving. Conservationists lose their credibility because they will say anything that might support their cause whether or not its true doesn’t matter.

In campaigning to stop logging in native forests, although it is important to draw public attention to the fact that black cockys, numbats and others are endangered and may be brought to the brink of extinction by ongoing destruction of habitat, it is equally important to emphasise the roles such creatures play in the whole ecosystems to which they belong. Whilst we may have a holistic understanding of the integrity of ecosystems, it is is crucial to recognise that probably the vast majority of those who we seek to influence do not. Many people whilst viewing the loss of any particular species as regrettable, have no concept that this loss is inevitably accompanied by a corresponding degradation of the whole forest ecosystem. Nor of course does it have to be a 100% loss of particular species. Severe decline in numbers will result in whatever functions that creature performs in the system no longer happening in localised areas and will also result in a domino effect that will flow on to the relationships it has with other creatures. I am deplorably ignorant of how our forest ecosystems work but one example springs to mind. The black cockys chew the stems of gum nuts at a particular time in their maturity, presumably when the seed has set, thereby releasing them onto the ground. Were there no cockys to do this job, I suspect very few gum nuts would reach the ground in sufficient numbers to guarantee subsequent germination. Please feel free to provide examples of what I’m talking about. With a few concrete examples I may be able to create a song with a catchy tune that would get the idea across in a manner that would lodge in people’s minds. We need more than just banners and slogans; we also need to provide an understanding of what an ecosystem is across to the general public in a simple easily digestible way. This would strengthen our position considerably. The minister for the environment probably has a good understanding of politics but a poor understanding of ecology. With skilful guidance this could however be improved. I would like to see the words ‘endangered’ and ‘ecosystems’ linked. i.e. a banner could read ‘ More Logging = Endangered Ecosystem. This point could/should be emphasised in conversations with the minister, on air interviews etc.

Cheers,
Chris