Forestry defends swift parrot management
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 8:45 
Forestry Tasmania says it is working to protect the parrot's habitat.Forestry Tasmania has rejected a claim it is destroying the habitat of the endangered Swift Parrot.
Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown says thousands of hectares of Tasmanian nesting ground is being destroyed each year in the Wielangta Forest.
Forestry Tasmania says it deferred logging a 68 ha coupe when it became aware that Swift Parrots had decided to nest there.
Forestry's general manager of corporate relations, Ken Jeffreys, says Senator Brown is creating a false impression that the last of the parrot's habitat was about to be logged.
"The Wielangta Coupe that Bob Brown refers to was only 68 hectares, there are about 1,000 breeding pairs of swift parrot as we understand it, and to provide sufficient habitat for that 1,000 pair, you need about 2,000 ha of habitat," Mr Jeffreys said.
"My understanding is in Tasmania there's something like 391,000 ha of suitable habitat for the Swift Parrot".
Forestry Tasmania says its scientists are working to secure long-term habitat for the endangered Swift Parrot.
"On this particular occasion they chose a coupe at Wielangta, next year it might be different," Mr Jeffreys said.
"The challenge for us and for all conservationists is to make sure there is sufficient habitat right through the Tasmanian landscape and that's a challenge we're happy to take up."