Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) has been forced to back down after wrongly issuing notices banning 19 environmental protesters from entering over 800,000 hectares of Tasmanian public forest. The notices, issued last year, barred protesters from entering all permanent timber production zone land and forestry roads in response to protest action against the logging of a 17-hectare native coupe in the state’s north-west. Bob Brown Foundation campaign manager Scott Jordan described the ban as “illegal intimidation”, saying it prevented some protesters from leaving their homes or going to work. “This is an embarrassing backdown by the state logging agency who have taken six months to come clean,” he said. “That Forestry Tasmania, a government agency, acted in such an unlawful and intimidatory manner is a symptom of a government that will do anything to prevent public protest against logging of our precious native forests.” Jordan said the business will cover the protesters’ estimated $27,000 legal costs.