Protesters stopping logging operations in Yarratt State Forest

The two women, film-maker Juliet Lamont and her daughter Luca, hope their action will focus attention on the the plight of koalas, forests and climate change.

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Yarratt State Forest is the only high quality koala habitat in the Taree Forest Management Area that wasn't severely burnt in the Black Summer fires, the protestors say.

"I grew up in this area in the 70s and both of my daughters were born here," Juliet said.

"The magic and power of these forests have deeply shaped our lives and I'm horrified to see their utter destruction as we find ourselves in this global environmental crisis.

"I'm here with my 24-year-old daughter, Luca, to call out this madness and say that we all have a human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.

"There is a lot of criticism about taking direct action to protect our environment as being radical. Climbing a native tree to stop logging to bring attention to the insanity of destroying our publicly owned State native forests isn't radical. Tax payers dollars that subsidise this industry at a loss of $30 million over the last two years, that's radical.

"Yarratt (State) Forest is the only forest in the lower Manning Valley that wasn't burnt in the 2019 fires and the government's own experts recommended there be no logging in the Taree area for three years.

"Instead, the Forestry Corporation went straight in and they have utterly obliterated half of it, and now started on the other half! That's radical.

"Destroying endangered koala habitat is radical," Juliet said.

Luca said she was involved in the protest beside her mother to "highlight the harm that forestry (sic) is causing and to call them out".

"Even though the actual experience of getting arrested and the consequences aren't things I am looking forward to, I feel that doing nothing is far worse than the horror of the reality that we are all facing in this catastrophic climate emergency," Luca said.

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