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CAR dragon stops logging in WA

A ‘CAR dragon’ was used to halt logging as protesters stepped up their fight at Helms Forest near Nannup in WA’s South-West. Source: Perth Now

Protesters blocked the road with an old car with a hole cut in the floor and positioned over a steel pipe embedded in the road below it.

On Wednesday morning Dee Patterson had her arm locked into the steel pipe, preventing authorities from shifting the car dragon to clear the road for logging trucks and machinery to access the forest.

Ms Patterson is a cockatoo expert and the manager of nearby Jamarri Black Cockatoo Rehabilitation Centre. She and her husband David, who passed away in January, have been campaigning for the protection of Helms since 1999.

“I am doing this for David. He wanted so badly to protect Helms Forest, and if it came to it to stop the logging himself,” Ms Patterson said.

“I spoke to David’s mum about taking this action, and she said, “Do it Dee, do it for David and for the cockatoos.

“We are going to lose the black cockatoos if we don’t stop logging native forests,” she said.

Jess Beckerling convener of the WA Forest Alliance echoed the calls.

She also said new anti-protest laws proposed by the government would see protesters jailed for up to two years but would not stop people from taking necessary stands to prevent the logging of threatened species habitat.

It is the latest in a series of protests at Helms, with conservationists locking themselves to bulldozers and machinery.

The Forest Products Commission and the WA Government say the native forest timber industry is an important part of the fabric of the South-West region, with only a fraction of forests selectively logged and old growth forest left untouched. ‘

“Many local communities rely heavily on the employment and provide services to the industry. Harvesting of forest areas not only generates revenue for Forest Products Commission but employs people in the harvesting, processing and manufacturing sectors,” the FPC said.