Envirotalk | Save The Styx Valley, Send a letter

Select the minister you wish to send the letter to
Mr Mark Latham (Opposition leader of Australia)
Mr John Howard (Prime Minister of Australia)
Mr Paul Lennon (Premier of Tasmania)
Mr Rene Hidding (Opposition leader of Tasmania)

Dear [The Minister's name and your name, will be automatically added to the email for you.],

I am very distressed about the continuation of logging and clear felling in Tasmania's old growth forests.

Tasmania contains the world's tallest hardwood forests and Australia's biggest area of temperate rainforest and wilderness. These forests are home to rare and threatened species such as the wedge-tailed eagle, the spot-tailed quoll and the giant freshwater crayfish. Yet, these areas are being destroyed by new logging roads, logging, burning and poisoning, at devastating and unsustainable rates.

Official forestry and government figures put the percentage of logs taken from Tasmania's public forests that end up as woodchips at over 90%, which return less than $15 a tonne to the people of Tasmania.

Meanwhile, we are losing a valuable tourism asset. The number of tourists visiting Tasmania grew by 22% in the last financial year (breaking the 700,000 visitor mark). Surely, this suggests there is much greater value in preserving Tasmania wilderness, and supporting Tasmania's tourism industry.  Logging old growth forests is a very wasteful use of an internationally significant resource, and clearly does not benefit the people of Tasmania.

This is a matter of national and international importance. I appeal to you to intervene on behalf of the people of Australia. With limited investment, these ancient forests can be protected and deliver real economic value as tourism destinations.  People within Australia and throughout the world would visit Tasmania simply to experience the joy of visiting these rare and ancient forests.

I look forward to your reply via email.  Please, do not waste paper by replying via post.

Yours sincerely,

If you wish to alter your letter, maximum characters allowed to add:

Full name

Country

Your email address