Where: Lawns of Parliament House, Canberra When: 8.30am, 10th September 2018 Why: Australia is facing a national extinction crisis.  But it doesn’t have to be this way. With strong new laws and more resources we can turn things around. Our goal for September 10 is to see 2,000 people, representing Australia’s 2000 threatened species, take a visible public stand against extinction on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra.

The damage of wild horses to alpine environments is well documented. However, the NSW government has decided to allow horse populations to continue to degrade the Alps. On the 3rd November, a group of bushwalkers will start a 35 day walk from Sydney to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko, to highlight the damage being caused by feral horses. They are looking for walkers to join them for all or some of the walk. The route will follow main and secondary roads, via Camden, Mittagong, Goulburn, Canberra, Cooma and Charlotte Pass.  With the support of the National Parks Associations of NSW and the ACT, and Bushwalking NSW, they are expecting large crowds at the start and finish of the walks. More detail is available on the Save Kosci web site (savekosci.org)

Friends of the Earth. Media release. August 11 2018 Friends of the Earth Australia today welcomed a decision in the Supreme Court of California to award school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson US$289million in damages after Johnson took legal action against pesticide company Monsanto. Johnson was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2014. His lawyers argued that Johnson’s regular use of Glyphosate, which he used up to 30 times a year in his work, caused the disease. Monsanto is facing 5,000 similar lawsuits across the United States. The jury in the Johnson case deliberated for 3 days before deciding the verdict.

Tasmania is blessed with beautiful and intact landscapes and an impressive network of national parks. However, World Heritage Areas and national parks have long been targeted by developers who want to establish commercial tourist operations in a number of places (check here for a current list of proposed developments). One of these proposals would see helicopter tourism inside the Walls of Jerusalem National Park in central Tasmania at Halls Island in Lake Malbena. You have a chance to say NO to this development.

By Ingrid Marker ‒ Cassowary Keystone Conservation Inc.            A keystone species and major tourism icon of Far North Queensland, cassowaries live in the Wet Tropics ‒ a small area compared to their original habitat. This land was set aside to protect species from threats, whilst enabling them to access diverse habitats and forage on variety of seasonal rainforest fruits.

MEDIA RELEASE: 8 June 2018 Today, community members gathered outside the meeting of the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council (MinCo) meeting at the Hyatt in Canberra with the message: Healthy Rivers Need Water. This is the first time state water ministers will come together since the Federal Government cut 605 billion litres from the Murray Darling Basin Plan in May.

For more than 20 years, Friends of the Earth (FoE) has worked with Friends of Gippsland Bush (FoGB) to see remaining high conservation forests in the Strzelecki Ranges, south east of Melbourne, protected. The decades long campaign to see the Strzelecki Ranges Rainforest Cores and Links reserve established is almost over. We have just received the good news that the first 1,600ha of land was Gazetted by the Victorian State Government on the 10th of May 2018. This now means that the land in question is classed as a Forest Reserve by the Victorian State Government under section 50(1) of the Forests Act. This means no more logging forever!

22 May 2018 Environmental Organisation Friends of the Earth (FoE) today expressed concerns over the registration of the larvicide “Sumilarv Granular Insect Growth Regulator” (Active Constituent: Pyriproxyfen) commonly used for control of mosquitos, midges and latrine flies. Pyriproxyfen is an extremely powerful synthetic hormone, that is highly persistent, active at very low concentrations, and interferes with developmental processes in a very wide range of organisms.

It’s crunch time in the campaign to stop the cable car up the face of kunanyi/ Mt Wellington. The proposal is being fast tracked by the Tasmanian government (background here). If you’ll be anywhere near Hobart on Sunday 6th May please join this event and show your opposition to the desecration of the mountain.

Hobart is fortunate to be one of the few cities in the world to have a wild mountain on its doorstep. Mount Wellington/ kunanyi provides an iconic backdrop to the city and provides an important habitat for a range of threatened species including the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, the Grey Goshawk and the Wedge Tailed Eagle.