Now is a critical time for you to speak up to save our eastern forests – by creating new national parks.
There is an urgent need to protect the forests in Victoria’s east – the Yarra Ranges, Rubicon, Central Highlands and East Gippsland – from the devastating threat of commercial logging.
Please join us in calling on Premier Andrews to commit to creating a new Great Forest National Park and to better protect our forests right across the state.
Fill in your details to send the following email.
Dear Premier Andrews,
I love Victoria’s national parks.
National parks permanently protect habitats and form the backbone of our society’s efforts to conserve our natural heritage, unique native wildlife, water catchments and carbon rich forests. They also provide essential space for families across the state, including mine, to enjoy rest and recreation in our great outdoors.
Our national parks and conservation estate are also a key community asset. Tourists annually spend $1.4 billion to visit parks, which generate $1 billion gross value added and at least 14,000 jobs in the Victorian economy. National parks also provide a raft of environmental services (pollination, clean water, flood and coastal inundation protection) worth many hundreds of millions per year. In Victoria there are 50 million visits to national, state and metropolitan parks every year.
Significant areas of high conservation value native forests on public land in eastern Victoria also need protection in national parks to ensure the survival of significant numbers of threatened forest-dependent species – including the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum, the greater glider and forest owls – as well as ensuring the healthy functioning of the forest ecosystems. Ash forest of the Central Highlands has been listed globally as critically endangered, threatened by the cumulative impacts of logging and fire.
We need a Great Forest National Park in the Yarra Ranges and surrounds and better protection of East Gippsland forests.
A new Great Forest National Park will:
- Help save endangered wildlife
- Protect Melbourne’s drinking water catchments
- Help fight climate change
- Provide a new network of parks on Melbourne’s doorstep for rest and recreation
- Create long-term sustainable jobs
Please Premier Andrews, commit to creating the Great Forest National Park now.
