The conservation gain was 7000 hectares at the expense of a 50,000-hectare loss from other nonstatutory reserves, such as special protection zones. But we are still told this is a "win" for conservation. Strange logic, indeed. The 5000-hectare Martins Creek rainforest area was allowed a reserve status only on the proviso that a "very fast train" could be routed through the middle of it in the future; hardly a secure reserve. The Goolengook Flora and Fauna Reserve was the less valuable forest to the west of the controversial ancient forests that are still being flattened
East Gippsland is seven times more valuable than other Victorian regions
for conservation of threatened species, but Mrs Tehan contorts herself
and the facts to put on a wonderful show of backpatting. But back-stage
she further erodes East Gippsland's ancient ecosystems to sell for a lousy
nine cents-a-tonne royalty, to the export woodchip industry.