Up the wrong tree

Curtis Treloar, Bentleigh East
The Age (letter),  19 August 2011


JOSH Gordon's article (''Threatened species yield ground to loggers'', 17/8) starts with the wrong focus. These changes sound like they would help better protect threatened species. A 2009 report by the Auditor-General on the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act found the act was poorly implemented and in need of review. Recommendations to improve the legislation were made in 2002, but have not been implemented.

Nothing has changed in two years it seems, with the article stating ''the department currently searches for threatened species only in areas earmarked for logging, leaving most of Victoria's old-growth forests unchecked''.

This means there is more monitoring in timber production forests than national parks. We need to invest in the management of our expansive national parks and stop being fixated on the small amount of timber harvesting.

This debate is being skewed by the radicals and we need better landscape management.

I applaud the government for finishing a job the last government left for eight years.