Bob Brown Foundation has lodged an urgent application for an injunction in the Federal Court in Hobart to halt the deliberate logging of Swift Parrot habitat in Tasmania’s Lost Falls forest. The logging was uncovered by the foundation near the East Coast, inland from the Freycinet National Park. This week, seven forest defenders, including Bob Brown, were arrested for obstructing the bulldozers and chainsaws causing the destruction.

“Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) is destroying hollow-bearing trees, suitable for nesting, in the critically-endangered Swift Parrot’s habitat. After successfully gaining an undertaking to the Court from STT not to log 19 other Swift parrot coupes, we have lodged a new application for an injunction over 31 additional Swift parrot coupes in the Federal Court today. We seek immediate protection for these native forests where the critically-endangered Swift Parrot is settling to feed and/or breed,” BBF Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.

“The Eastern Tiers forest block, including Lost Falls, Mt Morriston and Snow Hill, east of Campbell Town, has been identified as important habitat by scientific experts. Nevertheless, it is being logged right now or is to be logged in the near future,” Weber said. The Swift Parrot, which migrates from the southeastern mainland to nest in Tasmania each summer, is the fastest parrot on Earth but is suffering a collapse in numbers.

“The Morrison and Gutwein governments are failing to uphold the intent of national law that Australia’s wildlife species should not be driven to extinction. Our action is to uphold the law,” Bob Brown said.

“The destruction of Swift Parrot and Tasmanian Devil habitat to replenish piles of logs and woodchips for export from Tasmania’s wharfs is a diabolical flouting of public expectation, including in the regions, that this nation’s wildlife and remaining native forests will be protected. We call on Prime Minister Morrison to defend, not destroy, rare and endangered creatures which are vital parts of the nation’s heritage. He should haul the chainsaws and bulldozers out of Australia’s remnant native forests before Christmas,” Brown said.