Forest Matters January 2025

24 January 2025

Welcome to the January edition of Forest Matters.

The WA Government is celebrating the biggest expansion of conservation areas in Australia’s history – an extra 6.5 million hectares of unique landscapes, culture, wildlife and plants for future generations. Whilst this is fantastic progress, we are looking to the Government to ensure delivery on the committed protection of over 700,000ha of South West forests. They’ve proven if resources and motivated, it can be done.

The WAFA team has grown this week and we are thrilled to have Emma Heyink join us as Community and Events Organiser and Phil Evans as Communications Officer. They both bring experience in community organising, campaigning, communications and much more. Thank you to outgoing Social Media Officer Kate Arebon for her hard work over the last few months. We’ll miss having Kate in her current role but are glad that she’ll continue to be part of the WAFA team in other ways.

This weekend we will be standing in solidarity with First Nations people who have long protested the celebration of January 26. Find an action near you here. The Southwest forests always have been and always will be Noongar/Bibbulmun boodja.

Jess Boyce
Director

Will Tanya Plibersek act to save Southwest forests?

South32’s destructive bauxite mine expansion has moved one step closer to reality with the WA State Government providing its final approval for the project.

This means that Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, now has the opportunity to save 3,855ha of the Northern Jarrah Forests from bauxite mining. Join the thousands of people who have already emailed Minister Plibersek by clicking the button below, and please share the action amongst your friends and family.

Bonus action: Phone the Minister on (02) 6277 7920 to let her know what you think.

Email the minister now

Community turn out to rally for the Tingles

(Photo: Jake Parker)

Hundreds of concerned community members joined WAFA and friends for a rally on the banks of the Kwakoorillup Beela/Frankland River in Nornalup on Saturday to protect the Tingle forest from prescribed burning.

The rally was featured on the ABC and local media outlets. The ABC also featured a story about the collapse of at least one 400 year old Red Tingle – discovered by local scientists. The counting continues and we will keep you up to date as that information comes to hand.

We must continue to keep pressure on Premier Roger Cook, Minister for Tourism Rita Saffioti, and Minister for Environment Reece Whitby to not torch the Tingles, and exclude fire-sensitive ecosystems from future prescribed burns. You can take action using the button below.

Thank you to Fire & Biodiversity WA, Denmark Environment Centre, South-West Forests Defence Foundation Inc., BirdLife Western Australia, Denmark Bird Group, Gondwana Link, South Coast Environment Group and Doctors for the Environment Australia for rallying with us.

Take action now

Growing support for changes to prescribed burning

Thank you! We were so pleased that 3,388 people joined the call for important changes to DBCA’s prescribed burns in Southwest forests with our recent parliamentary e-petition.

Whilst the online version of the petition is now closed, your chance to be heard has not!

You can join groups like Nannas for Native Forests, who have been out raising awareness about the issues with the current method of prescribed burning in the Southwest by getting out into the forests and community and collecting signatures via our paper version of the petition.

Be like the Nannas, and download your copy via the button below. It’s time for the WA Government to adopt more early detection and rapid suppression technology to extinguish bushfires faster.

We must stop the dangerous over-reliance on prescribed burning that sees vulnerable ecosystems and wildlife torched.

Please download and print the petition to gather signatures from your network, returning it to us before 30 April.

Download the petition

WA State Election 2025

forestsThe WA State Election on the 8th of March is fast approaching and we need to make sure candidates are hearing from their communities that they want to see forests protected.

The Conservation Council of WA has developed the 2025 WA State Election Environment Priorities with input from the sector including WAFA. Whilst not an exhaustive list, the document addresses some of the most imminent threats to the state’s unique and precious places.

Please take a look and consider taking a copy to your local candidates ahead of the election and call on them to pledge to support the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to provide Strategic Advice on the Northern Jarrah Forests, increase funding for rapid suppression to quickly extinguish bushfires, or other forest and environmental protections listed in the document that are close to your heart.

Email forests@wafa.org.au to find out how you can help more.

Read the CCWA report

Ultramarathon Fundraiser

To raise money for WAFA, 50 year-old Sarah Carlton will run 42.4km from Yallingup to Howard Park as part of the Margaret River Ultra Marathon.

We are impressed as this will be Sarah’s first marathon and we thank her for thinking of WAFA for this monumental feat.

You can sponsor Sarah with a tax-deductible donation for the Margaret River Ultra Marathon by clicking the button below.

Thanks Sarah!

Sponsor Sarah here

Shop

Do you love forests? Why not wear your passion on your sleeve and pick up some of our stickers and signs to tell the world proudly: I love WA Forests!

With an election coming in March, now is the time to sing it loud and sing it proud. So if you want to ‘stop the chop’ or ‘end forest mining’, then head on over to our shop.

Proceeds help WAFA continue to work to protect WA Forests.

Shop now

From our members

Our friends at The Wilderness Society (TWS) and Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) are holding some upcoming events, and we encourage you to get active and join them.

7 February – The Wilderness Society – WA Alcoa Pinjarra Protest
Join TWS and the End Forest Mining Alliance to let Alcoa and the Labor Government know that as long as the health of our communities and forests are at stake, no amount of greenwashing will make up for the destruction Alcoa is causing!
12 February – Conservation Council of WA – Birds of a feather: Saving the Black Cockatoo
Join the CCWA and Urban Bushland Council for the first Environment Matters forum of 2025,  as they share an overview of the plight of the Black Cockatoos and hear from a line-up of guest speakers on the all-important question – how do we save the Black Cockatoos?

Are you one of WAFA’s member groups? If you would like a brief note of your group’s event, activity, or call for submissions included in this section of the Forest Matters newsletter, please send to forests@wafa.org.au

Not a member group? Find out more about the alliance here.

Protect the tingles from prescribed burning, for good

Tingles are a large, ancient tree species that are only found in a small area in WA’s Southwest, close to Walpole. They can live for more than 400 years, reach heights over 55 metres and have the largest base of any eucalypt, and provide critical habitat to many threatened plants and animals. They are vulnerable to frequent fire.

In December 2024, Giants East, a tingle forest block in the famed Valley of the Giants, was torched as part of the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA)’s prescribed burning program.

More than 100 giant trees collapsed in the intense burn, with flames reaching the tops of many trees in one of the worst outcomes seen by WA’s prescribed burning program.

After persistent community action, three tingle-karri blocks, Nornalup, Coalmine and Mount Clare received a reprieve at the end of 2025 and were removed from the burn plan until July 2026.

But these blocks, and other tingle forests, aren’t safe forever. They could be on the burn plan for 2026-27. There must be a commitment from the WA Government to permanently protect tingles from prescribed burning and revise how fire is managed in these areas.

Over time, tingle forests self-thin and become naturally less flammable. Left unburnt, they are less of a fire risk than forests burnt in the last 30 years.

In a drying climate that is increasingly prone to bushfires, it’s important to be bushfire ready, but prescribed burning shouldn’t be the only tool in our bushfire prevention kit. It is vital that the Southwest’s prescribed burning practices reflect current science and a changed climate, and funding is directed towards rapid detection and suppression of bushfires.

Smoking collapsed Tingle after the giants east burn

It is of the highest priority that the tingles are protected from fire not just in this burn plan, but for good.

Please contact the Premier and relevant Ministers using our template to urge them to permanently protect tingle forests from prescribed burning. Enter your details to start writing your email.

Read more about the Giants East burn or about rapid suppression technology.