We spent today in some of the forests up in lutruwita/Tasmania’s Central Highlands that are being logged, or are about to be. It was a Bob Brown Foundation Threatened Forest Open Day. It was sobering and a bit sad. Also fascinating, and the forest is beautiful.

People gathered under a Bob Brown Foundation marquee in the rain, holding a yellow 'Save Wentworth Hills' banner with two painted owls.
The marquee, set up in the forest.

It rained pretty much all day. The marquee was up in the middle of the forest and we stood under it while a few people talked. They went through what’s happening to these forests and what’s scheduled to be cut. I got a lot out of it.

Then we headed further in.

A group of people in raincoats walking single file through dense, mossy forest, stepping over fallen logs.
Walking in.

The trees are huge. Moss and lichen run up the trunks and you have to crane your neck to see the top.

Looking straight up into the tall canopy of a wet eucalypt forest.
The canopy.

It’s thick down at ground level too, with stumps that have moss growing over them.

The forest floor and understorey, with slender trunks, moss, and a small weathered stump among the greenery.
The understorey.

A lot of this is on the list to be logged. You don’t have to imagine it, they’ve already done it next door.

A wide panorama of a clearfelled hillside: bare red soil, scattered slash and fallen timber, with intact forest still standing on the far ridge.
A clearfelled coupe, with intact forest still standing beyond.

Some of these trees are hundreds of years old. The cleared block beside them is where they end up.

There was live music out in the forest too, which I wasn’t expecting and really liked.

Go to one of these if you get the chance.