Help Valerie pay her fines to PROTECT our Ancient Forests

Sarah Denny is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Valerie Thompson.

Donation protected

What kind of world are we living in when it is a crime to PROTECT an ancient tree but not a crime to DESTROY one?

While Forestry Corp is accelerating its pace of forest destruction across NSW, targeting the most ecologically significant forest habitat areas, the NSW Government and regulators are sitting on their hands - with rarely even a slap on the wrist for blatent breaches of Forestry Codes. Even the electorally promised Great Koala National Park is being smashed more destructively every day that native forest logging is allowed to continue.

At the same time we, the Australian public, still must continue to subsidise the stubborn states who refuse to end native forest logging. This is despite the economic ludicracy, not to mention the pressure on our embattled wildlife and climate, of continuing this maddness.

Yet local communities continue to stand up to this senseless and costly destruction of our native forests in the face of government failures. As part of a protest by concerned citizens protecting ancient Doubleduke forest in the Bundjalung Nation, Valerie was charged $2358 ($1800 fine plus court costs and levy) in August 2024. She is still awaiting further fines for standing up for Takayna forests in Lutrwita from July, after receiving a $500 fine plus additional court costs for protecting the ancient Takayna forests earlier this same year.

Eddie Lloyd, the lawyer representing the Doubleduke forest defenders, said “Todays case showed that responsible citizens ... who sat in a tree to protect the forest from unlawful logging by Forestry Corp will be punished whilst Forestry Corp NSW who were found to be unlawfully logging did not even receive a slap on the wrists.

They were acting in the public interest but the current law only protects the interests of Forestry Corp and endorses the continuation of the destruction of our forests.

It is high time for Parliament to introduce ecocide as a crime and to end native forest logging today."

PLEASE if you can in some way, donate to this cause so forest defenders can continue to do what is required to protect our country for future generations. Even a few dollars will help. Together let’s keep our forest defenders on guard when our government will not.

“Native logging will very likely continue in Tasmania and NSW for many years to come. NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed in early January 2024 that the native forest logging industry has a future in his state following a court case decision to uphold laws in support of forestry ( McGowan 2024)” David Lindenmayer - The Forest Wars

Full details of the media release here:

MEDIA RELEASE – FOREST PROTECTORS FINED

9 August 2024

Today, although found guilty of interfering with logging operations in the Far North Coast forest of Doubleduke, the Magistrate noted that the logging was later stopped due to Forestry Corp NSW’s failure to adequately map giant trees.

Forest protectors Kashmir Miller and Valerie Thompson were found guilty in Ballina local court today over two separate stop-work actions in the ancient forest remnant in early 2023. Dubbed ‘ Gully of the Giants’, this forest was a documented refuge of unburnt forest of exceptional importance for threatened forest fauna and flora.

Ms Thompson and Ms Miller each faced multiple charges related to hindering forest operations after occupying a platform suspended from harvesting machines in two separate events. Ms Miller’s charges were dismissed without conviction after entering into a conditional release order. Ms Thompson was convicted on three counts and fined $1800.

“Doubleduke is a shocking reminder of why we need to end native forest logging in NSW”, Ms Thompson says. “That they were even logging the Gully of the Giants at all, much less without proper mapping of giant trees or fauna, shows that Forestry Corp cannot be trusted to manage our state forests. They have lost absolutely all credibility”.

“While these charges inched their way through the court system, the iconic forest we stood up for had no such luxury of time. Instead, those ancient trees – many hundreds of years old – were smashed at break-neck speed by enormous forestry harvesting machines”.

“We call on the NSW and Australian Labor governments to immediately act to end native forest logging, remove all subsidies of this wasteful and destructive industry, and fund a rapid transition out of native forest logging”.

This message comes at a critical time in the Northern NSW forest campaign, as logging across NSW including in the Great Koala National Park continues to accelerate at the very time the government is drags its heels at coming good on its promises.

“Native forest logging is accelerating the climate crisis”, Ms Miller adds. “As a young person growing up in the Northern Rivers witnessing consistent climate catastrophes destroying our communities, I am terrified for my future. The Labor state and federal government is more concerned with charging protestors doing what they can to stop irreversible damage to our forests and climate than they are with taking action on ending native forest logging.”