Australia: Upper Florentine treesit continues as first log trucks roll out…

The truck laden with old-growth eucalypt sawlogs bound for a local
mill left at 12.30pm with an escort of 10 police officers. One
protester was arrested after chaining herself to an excavator but the
truck left without incident. Police yesterday ordered the bulk of the
20-odd activists maintaining a vigil on the Gordon River Rd near the
coupe to leave the area for 24 hours. Four tree-sitters inside the
exclusion zone will today spend their 11th day aloft.

The area has
been the centre of intense protests since Forestry Tasmania removed a
protest camp and began building a logging road into the area. Forestry
Tasmania says the coupe is expected to generate $2 million worth of
timber — about half from eucalypt and special species timber sawlogs
and the remainder from pulp logs. Derwent District forest manager
Steve Whiteley yesterday said he was thrilled to finally see trees
leaving the forest. “This is important for us, the very first load of
sawlogs from the road up here. Today we’ve used Timbs Road for the
first time,” he said. “We’re very happy with progress on the road to
date and it’s great to see the road being used for employment in the
valley.” He said the most worrying part of the 10-day battle for the
Florentine was protesters entering the exclusion zone and terrifying
timber workers. “In 2009 it’s a ridiculous situation where people can
come to work and get ambushed,” he said.

“We’ve had a number of people
quite distressed by the damage that they could have caused to
someone.” Deputy forest manager Dave Brown said his workers were proud
to be involved in the operation. “It’s been frustrating at times but
when we have a good day and make progress it certainly buoys the
spirit,” he said. “The aim here is to grow a new forest — to harvest
the timber that’s here and to grow a new forest. “This forest here is
a very old forest and the trees here are dying and it’s time for us to
grow new trees here.” Still Wild Still Threatened spokesman Ali
Alishah said hundreds of people were expected in the forest again this
weekend for further protest action.  “The saddest thing is that 78.2
per cent (of the wood) in the Upper Florentine is going to be used for
woodchips, according to Forestry Tasmania’s three-year plan,” he said.
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/01/22/50945_tasmania-news.html