Nic, a Warburton local, has locked onto logging machinery this morning, halting the destruction of forests just outside Warburton for a fourth day! This comes after Alice, another member of the community, who had been occupying a tree-sit since Monday was arrested yesterday afternoon.
The Dan Andrews government has lost all social license to log these precious forests, which mostly ends up pulped for paper.
In a personal statement Nic says;
“The available data suggests that fire risk in ash forests peaks at around 10-30 years after logging, thereby putting my home and my community at risk of higher intensity fires in the decades to come. Logging increases fire risk dramatically.”
“I am angry and disgusted. Waves of deep grief roll through me as I watch the forests being razed. I will not be silent. I will not stand idly by while the very trees that are integral to our survival are ripped out of the earth and increasing our fire risk.”
“Somehow, during this pandemic, logging has been deemed essential. This is CRIMINAL. Absurd, given our current state of climate emergency. We are obliterating nature, the very thing that stands between us and our own extinction.”
“What I am doing is my last resort to be heard. That does not make it easy. I consciously set aside my prevailing belief system that says, ‘I must not break the law’. As a mother, my instinct to protect what is left for my children is so unbelievably powerful – I can no longer be complicit in this destruction happening in my backyard.”
Yesterday government authorities arrested the brave conservationist who’d been occupying a tree-sit tied to logging machines for 3 days. Now Warburton resident Nic has taken action to stop logging for the fourth day. The fight for these forests is far from over. If you have the means to support what we do, please consider donating to our Chuffed:
https://chuffed.org/project/fcv
All of the money raised goes directly to helping communities across Victoria to defend forests threatened by destructive logging.
Alice and Nic, together with their community from Protect Warburton Ranges, have taken a stand against government logging in their backyard. Now the Dan Andrews gov must act to stop the continued destruction of precious forests.
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We acknowledge this protest took place on Wurundjeri country. We pay our respects to the First Nations peoples of the land, where logging is happening without their consent. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.