Fellas coupe will no longer be managed for timber production and instead of being replanted with pines will instead be regenerated to native forest. Hancock Victoria Plantations (HVP) have announced this decision regarding the Fellas Track site at Turtons Creek. Fellas coupe will now protect 174 Hectares of native forest including Mountain Ash forest, Cool Temperate Rainforest and Warm Temperate Rainforest, all important, endangered and rare forest types. Additionally, HVP has also decided not to harvest a 19-hectare area marked for logging, including Mountain Ash forest, further safeguarding local biodiversity and enhancing connectivity for native species.
HVP’s decision to return the site to native forest is a welcome step in the right direction. This will create the conditions that Slender Tree-ferns and rainforest need to survive. And it is great for our local Gang-gangs… the Mountain ash that are to be retained are already 50 years old, so will start getting the hollows that Gang-gangs need to breed much sooner.
There are still many details to be worked out about the replanting and ongoing stewardship of the Crown land site. We will be meeting with HVP and local Council to get the best outcomes for the wonderful species that call this forest home. We are so pleased that this decision has been made and would like to thank everyone who has worked to better protect our local threatened species.
To those of you who have helped along the way, and there are many of you… …helped with surveys, donations, wrote letters, signed petitions, built websites, gave legal advice, attended events, shared our story, invited us to your events, printed T-shirts, buoyed our spirits with music, and visited the Slender Tree-ferns to experience their precious and fragile beauty…
— we say thank you. 🌴🌴
