We have some important news about the protection of Mountain Ash forests.

The Mountain Ash Forest Community has been nominated for listing as a threatened community under the Victorian government’s Flora and Fauna Guarantee (FFG) Act. Species or communities that are listed under the Act are entitled to legal protections (for example, the Greater Glider was listed last year and the government is now considering how this species will be protected).

This information comes from the Friends of the Earth Forest Campaign Team and is a request for you to sign on to a submission urging the government to act and protect this forest community.

The Victorian government’s Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) has made the preliminary recommendation that Mt Ash forest not be listed as a threatened community and submissions are now open to the public to provide further information. This is our chance to tell the SAC that Mountain Ash Forests are under great threat and need better protection now.

We have drafted a submission commenting on the SAC’s preliminary recommendation and providing evidence showing why the Mountain Ash Forest Community must be listed as a threatened community and protected from the major threat of logging.

We are now putting the call out for those who would like to add their name in support of the submission.

You can read the submission here.

Will you support the submission by signing on?

To add your support, just reply to this email letting us know you’d like to sign on and include your full name, address and an email address you are happy for us to include on the submission – by this Thursday 8 February.

Just send your details to Sarah: sarah.day@foe.org.au

The more signatories we have for the submission, the stronger the message we send that the community believes that the Mountain Ash Forest Community should be listed under the FFG Act and receive the protection it needs to avoid ecological collapse.

If you would like to make your own submission, find out how on the SAC webpage. (Please note submission will be accepted up to this Friday 9 February, not Sunday 4 Feb as stated on the website).

Thank you very much! Please pass this message on to anyone else you think would like to support the submission and get better protection for Mountain Ash forests.

MAP: Logging since 1955 and wildfires since 2009 across the Central Highlands, with VicForests Timber Release Plan Oct 2016 overlayed showing areas available for logging for the next 3 to 5 years.