Easter forest camp destroyed
BY SEAN MARTIN-IVERSON
PERTH — Police and officials of the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) stormed the Easter forest camp in Western Australia's south-west forests on May 11, evicting anti-logging protesters, destroying furniture and equipment with chainsaws, and confiscating personal belongings.
The protesters, at the camp since February, had refused to comply with an eviction notice served by CALM officers on May 5. The assault was the first time CALM has used draconian new powers to evict protesters granted to it in November 1999.
On the same day, protesters blockading logging routes in Boorara forest were arrested. One protester's arm was badly injured.
Government officials have shut down a protest camp at Boorara, even though it was on private land and had the owner's permission, under the pretext of an obscure sanitation-related bylaw. A new camp has been established nearby.
Forest camp spokesperson Gina Litton called the eviction "an attempt to silence a campaign backed by the majority of West Australians". With a state election due soon, she said, the government is keen to "sweep the politically damaging old-growth issue under the carpet".
According to the WA Forest Alliance, many areas of old-growth and other high-conservation-value forest are being logged, particularly the jarrah forests at Lowden, Darradup, Hilliger and Easter. Despite government and forestry industry claims to the contrary, old-growth karri forests are being clear-felled near Pemberton, Northcliffe and Walpole.