Batten down the hatches!

I felt like I’d landed in a movie, you know the ones where they’re on a ship in the middle of the sea and a massive storm hits. The boat is swaying as waves crash against its sides, the people battling against the wind to stand upright, frantically trying to tie things down, the rain battering them as it pelts down hard, and gushing in sideways. That was what it was like in my tree sit last night! As I rushed to tie down tarps that had ripped free from their bindings and secure every item safely to the sit, the rain bucketed down. Lightning lit up the sky in grand flashes. Each time I’m anxiously counting the seconds between lightning and the boom of the thunder. Trying to judge how far away those bolts of electricity are from me. Fully aware that I’m at the top of something very tall. If they come any closer I’ll have to get down. The ethical dilemma! I promised I wouldn’t get down until the forest is saved! Oh no. But of course, safety is more important than anything and I’d never do anything that would compromise on safety. So I kept counting the seconds between flash and boom, praying that they wouldn’t get any closer! Out on the deck in the pelting rain I fastened the ridge poles with extra rope to ensure they wouldn’t fall under the relentless pressure of the wind. My shoes like lead weights, heavy with water, my jeans sticking to my skin, my hands growing numb.

When the lightening was finally only a glimmer in the distance, I settled down under the tarp, to the eerie stillness of the wind and the now faint pitter patter of rain, and fell asleep.

Today it was like last night could have been a dream! The sky was blue, the air still. The sun shining as I washed my rain drenched clothes and hung them out to dry.

Inspiring moments of the past  few days.

1). I received a visit from a group of people from the Czech Republic. The documentary makers walked for hours through the forest to visit the base of my tree and call out their support. They couldn’t come up and of course I couldn’t go down, so we conducted an interview via walkie-talkie. I told them all about the forest here and they told me about the similar issues that exist in their home country too. They did some filming of this beautiful forest and hopefully it will help spread the word about these world class forests all the way to the Czech Republic!

2).I also had a visit from some other wonderful people who sent me up bags and bags of goodies! My arms sure were tired after hauling it all up 60 meters, but it was well worth it! Lots of snacks, some remedies from the naturopath in case I get sick, some books to read and some home-made jam!

3).And then, today’s moment of inspiration and excitement occurred just now when I checked the statistics for our website and saw that it was our busiest day on the site so far, with 2, 884 clicks! It’s great to see so many people looking at the site. We’ve had almost 30,000 views since launching. But of course, we need to spread the word even further. It’s been great to see lots of people getting on board with the postering extravaganza week. Thanks for all your efforts. If you haven’t had a chance yet- check out the take action page for details and downloadable fliers and posters. The color posters are ready tomorrow – so if you want any posted to you just let me know and I’ll get the crew in Hobart to send you some.

Logging Update

On Monday January 16th I woke early anxiously waiting… expecting logging to begin again in the forest that I’m in. I hear the trucks early in the morning. But they sounded further away and I couldn’t see them. It’s hard to tell sometimes, because of the way sound travels in the valley.  The people on the ground went to investigate. After a difficult mission walking through an old burnt out clear fell and a vicious patch of dense cutting grass that left them with lots of little gashes on their arms and legs … they finally found the logging operations. The loggers seem to have gone down the road to anther logging coupe nearby, known to Forestry Tasmania as TN42A. This area was in the original 572,000 hectares that was promised a moratorium by March 15th 2011. But then, reneging on their promise (seems like a pattern is developing!) the government never implemented the moratorium. By the next agreement suddenly the government wasn’t talking about 572,000 hectares anymore, it was 430,000. What happened to those 140,000 hectares of high conservation value forest that had been promised a moratorium? Well, the answer lies in the machines and trucks I can hear. TN42A is in those 140,000 hectares. Looks like that patch of forest down the road will never get the chance of formal protection, or if it does it will be too late. How many more hectares will be lost before it’s too late?