Protesters demand Helms Forest protection
Sunday, September 16, 2012 at 23:29 
All 3 black cockatoo species of the South-west need Helms Forest at Nannup to survive. Image by Bill & Mark BellThe WA Forest Alliance says there has been increased community support to ban logging in Helms Forest in Nannup.
More than 80 people from the local and surrounding communities turned out at a protest at the weekend, calling for increased protection of the south-west forest.
Jess Beckerling says Helms Forest has become home to all three species of cockatoos in the south-west after surrounding areas have been burnt or logged in recent years.
"There's been around about 1,000 kilometres of forest and bushland that have been intensively burnt by prescribed burn escapes and when those fires get up into the canopy, the feed production is wiped out in the canopy for five years or more, so the seed obviously is necessary for the cockatoos and the cockatoos' food resources have been massively depleted," she said.
She says she is pleased to see the increased community support to ban logging in the Helms Forest.
"There's an incredibly large number of community groups and individuals now active in the south-west wanting to see Helms protected," she said.
"We need to protect our native forests.
"It's an uneconomic industry, it's not ecologically sustainable to continue logging them and Helms is standing out as an area that we need to protect the most urgently right now."
The Forest Industries Federation says the logging, due to start this week, is in areas which pose no threat to cockatoos.
The federation says the high number of the birds prove the logging which took place in 2007 had no impact on cockatoo numbers.
It says extra care will be taken to preserve marri trees which provide food and a breeding habitat for the cockatoos.