Citizen scientists from Wildlife of the Central Highlands and the Victorian Forest Alliance have discovered state-owned logging company VicForests has continued to illegally destroy numerous endangered Tree Geebungs while doing ‘regeneration’ works.

The groups have reported the illegal logging of the endangered plant, calling for VicForests to be charged for violating state environment laws.

While the government has said they are phasing out native forest logging on Jan 1, they have not made a decision about the future of failed state-owned logging agency VicForests.

“Citizen scientists and volunteer groups have been shouldering the responsibility of finding and reporting countless breaches of the laws for years. Yet the state government recently brought in laws to further criminalise citizen scientists and peaceful protestors, who now face thousands of dollars worth of fines and potential jail time, instead of cracking down on rampant illegal logging,” said Wildlife of the Central Highlands President Hayley Forster.

“The government must enact proper protections for forests, particularly after Jan 1 when logging is slated to end. Logging has had terrible impacts on forests over the last 50 years, and there’s a lot of important ecological restoration work that needs to be done. But VicForests have shown that it cannot be trusted in that role,” said Hayley Forster.