Two women who grew up in the Manning Valley are currently suspended from trees with ropes connected to, and stopping, logging in Yarratt Forest north of Taree.

Yarratt forest is the only high quality koala habitat in the Taree Forest Management Area that wasn’t severely burnt in the Black Summer fires.

The two women, mother Juliet, and daughter Luca, hope their action will focus attention on the NSW Government’s negligence and lack of concern about koalas, forests and climate change.

“I grew up in this area in the 70’s and both of my daughters were born here. The magic and power of these forests have deeply shaped our lives and I’m horrified to see their utter destruction as we find ourselves in this global environmental crisis. I’m here with my 24-year-old daughter Luca to call out this madness and say that we all have a human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment,” said Juliet Lamont, film-maker.

“There is a lot of criticism about taking direct action to protect our environment as being RADICAL. Climbing a native tree to stop logging to bring attention to the insanity of destroying our publicly owned state native forests isn’t radical. Tax payers dollars that subsidise this industry at a loss of $30 million over the last two years, that’s radical. Yarratt Forest is the only forest in the lower Manning Valley that wasn’t burnt in the 2019 fires and the Government’s own experts recommended there be no logging in the Taree area for three years. Instead, the Forestry Corporation went straight in and they have utterly obliterated half of it, and now started on the other half! That’s radical. Destroying endangered koala habitat is radical.

“I think we all know in our hearts what a dire situation we are in. That if we really look at ourselves in the mirror and ask what we are we doing to protect our kid’s future, then we’d all be here. And that the time to do something is now. We can do this together. With our families. Our communities. With visionary leadership in our governments. Standing up to protect what’s left of this fragile earth isn’t radical, it’s an act of love. And love entails us finding the courage deep

within us. Then we can look our kids in the eyes and say, “I love you.” And really mean it,” Juliet said.

“My name is Luca Lamont. I’m 24 years old and I’m here with my mother to highlight the facts about the harm that forestry is causing and to call them out.

“Even though the actual experience of getting arrested and the consequences aren’t things I am looking forward to, I feel that doing nothing is far worse than the horror of the reality that we are all facing in this catastrophic climate emergency.

“I think we need more people to stand their ground and take action as our leaders and the people making decisions obviously have no idea and completely disregard the laws of nature. We all need to stand together to protect our native forests even if it means we have to sacrifice our personal comfort. Because inaction in this climate crisis will be much more uncomfortable,” said Luca Lamont

Web: savebulgaforest.org Socials: @SaveBulgaForest Email: [email protected]

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