A magistrate dismissed a charge of ‘enter a forest w/o permission if prohibited by notice’ after the police failed to provide prima facie evidence to prove their case against Susie Russell. She has called the police action a S.L.A.P.P. – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
Veteran forest defender Susie Russell defended herself in the Forster magistrates court on Tuesday November 14. The judge’s ruling meant that Ms Russell did not have to provide her evidence and she can now put the long drawn out matter to rest.
The judge’s decision comes on the same day that the Environmental Protection Authority issued a Stop Work Order at Flat Rock State Forest after Forestry Corp failed to find den trees of the nocturnal Southern Greater Glider – because they look for the nocturnal animals during day light hours.
Ms Russell was arrested on January 9, at a protest to Save Bulga Forest, west of Port Macquarie.
The North East Forest Alliance has worked with the Bulga locals on a citizen science project that over the last few months has established that Bulga State Forest is home to a nationally significant breeding population of the endangered Greater Glider. And the area is also being used by mother Koalas with joeys.
Logging has now been postponed until May because the Forestry Corporation have still not met their legal obligations to identify the den trees of Greater Gliders and other threatened species, suggesting that it should never have commenced.
“There is evidence of Greater Gliders being in other forests on the Central and Mid North Coasts, but the Forestry Corporation has failed to identify that habitat as well. Greater Gliders are on the road to extinction and the indiscriminate logging by the Forestry Corporation of vital habitat is making it worse”
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said
Concerned citizens only take action that might result in arrest as an act of desperation.
However on January 9, Susie had no intention on being arrested, and did not interfere with the logging operation. She was arrested after she walked around the corner to check on the well-being of a young woman on a tripod who was stopping the logging, and then walked back again.
Susie wasn’t arrested because she interfered with the logging, rather for being a vocal critic of native forest logging and the Forestry Corporation.
A court of appeal has already ruled that the police didn’t have evidence to meet the elements of the offence she is being charged with, so it is astounding that the police are continuing to waste dozens of hours and resources proceeding with a case that should never have gone to court in the first place.
As Susie said at the time, this has just made her more determined to see the destruction of our natural heritage stop.
Follow the Save the Bulga Forest campaign on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Web
See also: NSW Forestry Corp have a fight on their hands to Save Bulga Forest
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