A delegation of Bass residents presented a petition to the electoral office of Premier Peter Gutwein today, calling on him to protect the native forests of north east Tasmania, and immediately halt plans for logging two areas of the Krushka’s forests around the Blue Derby Mountain Bike trails.
Logging of the Krushka’s forests, that hold the Blue Derby Krushka’s MTB trail, is scheduled to start some time from October. We have signatures from over 24700 people, and counting, who understand the native forests of northeast Tasmania are worth more standing.
These forests are critical connectivity corridors for wildlife that our citizen science surveys have recorded including Tasmanian wedge tail eagles, Spotted tail quoll, Tasmanian devils, and the Giant freshwater crayfish. Logging these forests further imperils the survival of these threatened species, destroying their habitat and feeding grounds.
Our Gondwana remnant forests contain some of the tallest flowering plants in the world, ancient rainforests and irreplaceable glacial refugia forests of the Blue Tier. These areas are all crucial for our unique biodiversity, climate action, and as places that hold some of the most iconic nature-based tourism destinations in Tasmania, including the Blue Derby Mountain Bike Trails.
We are calling on the Premier to take urgent steps to protect the Krushka’s forests from logging, which could start any day now. We need practical action in tackling climate change and biodiversity loss by ensuring the Gondwana native forests of northeast Tasmania are taken off the logging lists. Safeguarding our natural assets, and growing nature-based tourism sectors that are bringing people from across the world to experience the beauty and diversity that is north east Tasmania’s wild places.