Native Forest Action
Media Release
12th March 2000

Revealing photos of Timberlands rimu logging published on the Internet

See: www.nfa.org.nz/orikaka

Native Forest Action activists were chased through dense bush in Orikaka Forest as they attempted to get photos of the Timberlands rimu logging operation. Although they twice came close to capture, they managed to elude forestry contractors and take the photos of the logging that Timberlands don't want the public to see. The graphic shots of a log-dump in the heart of Orikaka forest show the true magnitude of the current rimu logging in the area. They are available on the NFA web site - www.nfa.org.nz/orikaka

The photos show huge piles of ancient rimu trees lying like corpses waiting to be trucked away to sawmills and furniture factories. Within days of these photos being taken the logs at this site will have been removed and replaced by piles of newly harvested trees. Unless something is done quickly this will continue until Orikaka is ruined.

Following the canning of the beech scheme, and with the imminent end of rimu logging on public land, Timberlands is racing ahead to get all it can. With no regard for the delicate ecology of this forest, Orikaka is being harvested without mercy.

Orikaka is a temperate lowland rain forest, situated behind the small town of Inangahua in the Buller Gorge. It is a rich habitat for several threatened native species and the Department of Conservation lists it as having high conservation value. But Timberlands is intent on destroying everything it has.

Native Forest Action is calling for an immediate end to the logging in Orikaka and all other native logging on public land on the West Coast in exchange for the regional development package promised by the new government.

Ends.

----------------------------------------------------------------
For more details phone:

Dean Baigent-Mercer or Peter Russell on: 03 789 8734 or 04 383 5168 http://www.nfa.org.nz/orikaka

© Scoop Media