Franklin News and Views

Three days of good weather - see post and photos

From  The Sydney Morning Herald: national, world, business, entertainment, sport and technology news from Australia's leading newspaper. Ben Cubby, Environment Reporter December 30, 2008 Advertisement AN endangered water bird sanctuary on the South Coast was wrecked by vandals on Boxing Day, the latest in a series of attacks on wildlife refuges in southern NSW. Eggs have been stolen, nests trampled and vegetation burned in four attacks in the last three months, a level of damage that the National Parks and Wildlife Service says is unheard of. In the latest incident, at Cudmirrah Beach near Sussex Inlet, the eggs of a hooded plover were crushed - a serious loss given there are probably less than 50 of the shy birds left in the state. A wooden fence around the bird-breeding area was also dragged off and burned at a Boxing Day beach party. In a separate act of vandalism two days before Christmas, a breeding zone for terns near Culburra on the South Coast was trampled and partly burned

Far from impressed by Forestry Tas From ABC News Documents released under Freedom of Information laws have revealed Forestry Tasmania was advised not to log part of a coupe on South Bruny Island because of its potential as a swift parrot habitat. The report by the state government's Threatened Species Section says the coupe should be reserved for the endangered bird. Forestry Tasmania has admitted to logging half the coupe an d says more is planned. It says it received subsequent verbal advice from the Threatened Species Section saying it was all right to harvest the area. The Greens have described it as environmental vandalism, but Ken Jeffreys from Forestry Tasmania says the criticism ignores the bigger picture. "It would be an absolute cheap shot if you focused on one coupe, onesmall area of Tasmania and ignored the amount of work that Forestry Tasmania's put into the swift parrot habitat across the landscape," MrJeffreys said. The Greens' Cassy O'Connor s