The environment minister, Sussan Ley, has rejected a $100m wind farm proposal in central Queensland on the grounds it would clear old-growth forest important to vulnerable and threatened species, including the koala and greater glider.  Ley ruled the Lotus Creek wind farm, nearly 200km north-west of Rockhampton, was “clearly unacceptable” under national environment laws, in part because the site was home to species that were badly affected in other parts of the country during last summer’s catastrophic bushfires.  The Australian Conservation Foundation welcomed the decision, saying no commercial project should leave biodiversity worse off. But it noted it came less than a month after Ley approved a coalmine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin that would lead to the destruction of threatened species habitat.

Protesters shut down seven logging coupes across Victoria on Tuesday as environmentalists and community members called for an end to native-forest logging.  Protesters used tactics including tree-sits, locking onto machinery and walking into logging coupes to halt logging at Mount Cole, Baw Baw, Toolangi, Big Pats Creek, Camberville, Lakes Entrance and Noojee.  State government logging agency VicForests said it respected the right to protest but was concerned for the safety of its staff and contractors.  Protesters stopped a total of 41 contractors from working, at a loss of $8000 a day per coupe, a spokesperson said. “We ask that protesters do not enter active coupes where heavy machinery operates and put themselves and our workers in harm’s way.” The forest protests place increasing pressure on VicForests, which lost a landmark court case last month when the Federal Court found it had unlawfully logged areas of critically endangered possum habitat.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed has been called on to step in and resolve the current crisis with forestry licences “before the sector collapses”.  Making the calls, Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Farm Forestry Committee chairman Vincent Nally said: “The sector is in a state of emergency.  “There appears to be a complete lack of understanding among many in the department about the scale of the problem and the degree of frustration felt by forest owners that are trying to manage their investment,” he said. “…Though acknowledging that the Department of Agriculture has allocated additional resources in recent months, and procedures and systems have been updated, Nally warned:  “However, this is after a backlog of licences in excess of 1,200 had built up. The phrase too little too late, comes to mind,” he said.