Recently many tourists came to visit here. There is an information box at the
bottom of the tree. There are letters for people to sign to send to three Japanese paper companies. The letter explains the beauty of the Styx Valley and asks companies to protect Tasmania’s ancient forests.

- Sakyo, Japanese activist

Take action: email the Japanese buyers of Tasmanian woodchips.

It’s very windy today. Weather often changes here in Tasmania. People say 'four seasons in a day'

- Sakyo, Japanese activist

The Mori Gallery in Sydney is showing an exhibition called BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE: Works in response to the Styx.

It's opening on Friday night, November 28 from 6-8pm and will run for four days. Susan Norrie and Bob Brown will talk about environment, aesthetics and imagination. The address is:

168 Day Street*
Sydney

*Day Street is on the city side of Darling Harbour, one block down from Sussex Street.

For more info call: 612 9283 2903

Running concurrently from Wednesday, November 26- December 6 is an auction of works, with proceeds to support the campaign and to help keep those brave souls up the tree in the Styx Valley. Visit www.art.wilderness.org.au

- Trina, Greenpeace web editor (in the office)

"My head is still spinning now I am back in Sydney after three days in Tassie helping with the Styx campaign, doing Greenpeace media.

'Epic' is the word that came to mind when I climbed up to the Global Rescue Station (GRS). I've been arrested protesting in East Gippsland in 1990 and been up a tree sit before at Fort Badja but nothing compares with the exhilaration of climbing 25 stories and sitting in the amazing GRS. At about 40 metres you get above the main canopy of the gum trees and the other species but you are still miles from the top of the tallest of the tall trees. It really drives home that this is a precious forest - a wonderful ancient living thing that should never be smashed into worthless woodchips and shipped overseas for $10 a tonne.

I spent lots of time in the active coupe, where some very smart folk installed tree sits at about 40 or so metres, cleverly linked to machinery to stop logging. It was a great success and managed to keep the destruction on hold for two days and help get the message out about the terrible things going on in Tassie’s forests.

The most ridiculous thing was when the Government slapped a media exclusion zone over the protest on the second day. The 0.8 x 6km zone prevented the ABC’s Stateline, the Hobart Mercury and other outlets from getting to report on the events of the Tuesday. What have they got to hide?

It was also very disappointing to see senior Gunns forestry employees coming to the coupe and intimidating people with cameras and taking of number plates. The helicopter surveillance was also a bit rich.

Great thanks to the wonderful people up the GRS! It was lovely to be in your home for a little while. Enjoy that magic view and keep those spirits high – the world is watching.

Dan Cass, Greenpeace media

The action is over now. Police did not charge any of the activists for stopping logging operations over the two day period. The Global rescue station is still in operation so stay tuned for more updates. A successful action all round.

- Trina, Greenpeace web editor (in the office)

Read more >

Weblog entries from the tree-sitters have been quiet since the action began. However, action against logging of the Styx forest has gone to new heights today with a demonstration outside Tasmania's Parliament. This coincides with the expected arrests of two environmentalists perched in a 45 metre high tree sit. So far police have gone into the area but no arrests have been made.
Wilderness Society campaigner Geoff Law said, “This is day fourteen of the campaign and it is already succeeding in putting global attention on the Styx.
Will try to update as more action unfolds.

For more info read the press release.

- Trina, Greenpeace web editor (in the office)

Evening all. It's been an odd sort of day as far as life in 13c goes. We have begun (by 'we' I mean the rest of the crew that are not here in the bush with us) to blockade in the logging coups near by.

The police chopper went by a couple of times and a fair bit of traffic on the road. Our radios will not send or receive very far in the forest so we don't know what's happening or how it's going, which is a bit frustrating. We could call but I don't think the budget stretches to curiosity calls. Oh well.

The Wilderness Society has been distributing a map of how to get here, so the number of visitors has been increasing with today being the busiest so far. We had people from all over Europe here on some sort of tour from the mainland. Also a local photographer from New Norfolk and a couple of Irish guys that had ridden pushbikes all the way out from Maydena, which is over 30km away over hilly gravel roads. They brought us plenty of encouragement as well as a packet of chocolate biscuits and a big Irish flag, which is now flying along with the Dutch, German, Aussie, Canadian and Japanese national flags that are hanging off the south wall. These flags represent the activist’s nationalities and also show that there are people from all over the world who are concerned with the logging of ancient forests.

A Tasmanian friend has also just turned up with a nice bottle of red wine, which is going to be fantastic along with the "curryish" delight that Cat's cooking up. Pretty darn civilised for a bunch of greenies up a tree I reckon.

Another day comes to an end. The sunsets are amazing up here. Good luck to all the brave people that out there blockading the Gunns machines as I write.

- Adam, activist

Right now activists are blockading the machines used to clearfell trees in a logging coupe in the Styx forest.

Two activists are suspended mid-air in seats attached by rope to the logging machinery so that it cannot be used. Others activists, on the ground, have unfurled banners.

So far the loggers have failed to turn up to work. Read more.

- Trina, Greenpeace web editor (in the office)

I am not sure what day it is of the week or the month. It is a cold morning here is the Styx Valley, but I am wrapped in a really cosy sleeping bag. I have read through some emails for the first time in a few days while our sophisticated technology decided to take a rest, but it looks like we are connected again.

I enjoyed being unplugged for a while but was ecstatic to hear from family and friends. I am well. I am more well than I have been in a long time. We are eating good food and sleeping lots and there is lots of laughter. I have somehow managed to sprain my ankle and my treemates have me elevated, iced, wrapped and Will carries me from A to B. I am surrounded by good people.

The media here in Tasmania are still interested and the BBC called again. Sometimes when we are sitting around telling stories and the satellite phone rings and we have to do an interview the seriousness of why we are here comes flooding back.

I heard a kookaburra for the first time yesterday morning, and they do sound like they are laughing, and I am in a gum tree! The wildlife mostly consists of birds when you are living above the canopy, and I am beginning to recognise different calls.

- Angela, Canadian activist

Day 9
I’m sitting here because as you already know the biggest buyers of the woodchips that are sourced from Tasmanian ancient forests are Japanese paper companies such as Oji, Nippon and Mitsubishi.

My role is to inform Japanese consumers that they can stop destructive logging by not consuming paper from Japanese companies that source woodchips from Tasmania’s ancient forests such as Oji, Nippon and Mitsubishi.

- Sakyo, Japanese activist

Day 8
I think I'll begin my weblog in English for Greenpeace International, following Stephan`s departure.
The scenery from here is incredibly beautiful. We can see a blue haze over the top of the eucalyptus forest. The blue comes from the oil in the the trees. The mixture of the beautiful blue with the mist is a magical natural occurrence, not something that can be created artificially.

- Sakyo, Japanese activist

Download this document to find out where the treesit is. There is all sorts of useful information about the region, what you can do and how to get there – including a map.

To view this document you will need Acrobat reader. If you don’t have it you can download it for free from the Adobe website.

- Trina, Greenpeace web editor (in the office)

I am sitting in the tent with Sakyo, and Will [stern climbing trainer] is up here adjusting ropes and checking on things. Even tho I am 65 metres in the air on a platform attached to a tree with a number of different ropes, strangely I feel so safe. I know we are in good hands. Will is the person who designed our Global Rescue Station, or Buttercup as we fondly call it. It was built with such care and attention that it feels to me like home. In the tents you are cosy and out of the wind, but outside the tents, the weather - well, it is humbling.
The stars again last night were amazing. We had a fantastic dinner with lots of laughter. Our lives are dependent on the weather and it affects what we do, where we sit and how long we look at the stars. I have gotten to know my treemates quite well, and we get along incredibly. Not long ago we were strangers and now we are a family living in one tree.
Felicity is the youngest member of our crew and yet can tell you anything you ever wanted to know about Tasmania’s forest and has knit the most beautiful hat, or beanie as they are called here in Austraila.
Stefan has now left to return to Germany, but was terrific at keeping everything in good order and actually understood how the treesit sits - thank goodness. Sakyo is our new celebrity and is the person most likely to be in a great mood and to make you smile.
Today has been a great day - and I am happy. I wish I was here with this gang, that somehow we had met by chance, and had chosen to visit this valley, and having this adventure - not here because it is scheduled to be cut down.
- Angela, Canadian activist

We've had a great day sorting out our things to use the little space most wisely. It was fun to rearrange the furniture. Our furniture consists of two tents. We must be very careful to keep things very tidy; a tidy treesit is a safe treesit.
We received an update of the media coverage and it was a moral boost to hear that our message has reached Italy, Mexico, Japan and more. One of the best things about being in this tree is the opportunity to think about so many things without the distractions of everyday life. There isn’t radio, television or the internet to distract you from your own thoughts. However, we download messages once a day and all hover around the laptop to see messages from the outside. I guess old habits die hard.
-Angela

Now, lots of people have been asking the all-important question about how one ‘goes to the toilet’ 65 metres up a tree. I’m sure everyone can imagine. Let's just say it involves a chest harness, two points of contact, a bucket, and preferably no wind. It isn’t as big a deal as everyone seems to make out.
- Felicity

Here are some answers to all those people querying us about our communications, technological capacity and hardware.

We have two satellite phones to communicate with the outside world. One is in the Global Rescue Station, primarily for our international activists to communicate with global media, and the other is on the ground at our base camp for coordination and support.

Most of the time we have three laptops in the station. Our favourite is the toughbook, which is built to military specifications so it can deal with the extreme conditions we face up here - it even has a touchscreen, which has been quite a luxury.

We transfer video, photos, email and other data such as weather charts to the real world by using an M4 satellite unit, which transfers data at 64kbps. This unit has a built in DECT receiver, which we use for free internal communication out here in the forest between the Global Rescue Station and our support crew in and around base camp.

Aside from the relatively boring nature of keeping the solar panels pointed at the sun and recharging batteries for our radios, sat phones, laptops, head torches, digital video and still cameras, audio recording devices and other gadgetry, it's really exciting working so far above the ground. The whole team is continually inspired by the emails of support we continually receive from all over the world - please keep them coming!
- Adrian

Today the first email from Germany arrived - from a friend with whom I sat on a chimney for four days, years ago on another Greenpeace action, watching the then-biggest nuclear transport leaving Germany for reprocessing in France. From our 80m chimney watch-out we witnessed the whole valley in southern Germany turn into a police world, with thousands of police cars monitoring the transport of so-called safe radioactive waste.

Now I have the great pleasure to share again in an intensive experience, but a very positive one this time. This valley, with its blue-ish slopes of ancient forests, does not shine with police flashlights, is not closed off from any public access by three lines of guarded barriers, and is not overrun by big machines. I hope very much that the people who are responsible for the Styx don’t let it be logged, burned and turned into an industrialised valley.

I want to say a short word to my friend in Germany, whose email address I don’t have. Yes it was cold on that chimney, but only half as windy as here. Nevertheless, I could put to use here some lessons learned from the past. And I can write this weblog, which wasn’t possible back then.

Unfortunately I have to leave tomorrow for Germany to return to work. I would love to stay longer.

I hope our activities help to communicate back to Germany how beautiful it is here and to urge anyone who has a stake in it to work for the protection of this ancient forest so that we, our friends, and our children can come here one day to visit this unique spot.
- Stefan

Today started off absolutely perfect. No wind, a clear and sunny sky. I was standing out on the west platform admiring the sunrise when I heard the unmistakable sound of someone blundering through the bush. I peered down into the darkness of the forest floor expecting to see police or locals, but no, looking back at me was the lens of a camera. These photographers sure are keen!
We scrambled all the climbers to take the opportunity to hang one of our huge 250 square metre banners, which takes about an hour. We’d all finally climbed and abseiled into position when kawoofta, in it came again at gale force. Oh well.
Apparently there’s a high pressure system about to float over the top of us which will hopefully give us the conditions we need to have really constructive days up here. We need to completely back up the whole rig in case we get a real bad one one day. The personal safety is all double, or even triple at times, but Will and I would both feel better if another roll of 14mm rope went in to the whole thing.
The team is fantastic and all pulling together really well. We all enjoyed reading and laughing over some of the emails that have come in and get a lot of energy to continue from hearing where this campaign is getting coverage around the world, and how positive most of that coverage has been.
It’s the end of the day now. I’m in my tent on the north platform feeling the tree sway in the wind and trying not to worry about how strong some of the gusts are as they tear at the walls and tent.
- Adam

Back again, after the first night up the tree! And yes, we were attached to a safety line during the night as well. And we woke up to a great day with a blue sky and very calm winds, which is much more important than the sun up here. We can enjoy the splendid view over the hole Styx Valley from here. There are a few mountain tops around with the peaks above the tree line. One of them belongs to the World Heritage area that neighbours this great forest. Apart from a work road and a clearfelled cube we don’t see anything artificial, only the forest.

And this is really a forest like I haven’t seen one before. It is untouched by humans for hundreds of years and looks to me like a jungle. It’s green everywhere, fallen tree trunks in every way, some too big to climb over. And then these big trees like ‘our’ one, called 'giants'. I mentioned the height of 84.2 meters. That’s nearly three times the height of the church tower in my neighbourhood back home. Or a twenty-five story building. Or more than 160 tall people above each other. Why are they cutting down amazing trees like this? And sell them as woodchip to be turned into paper. Once. And then there is no more ancient forest, no more tallest hardwood trees in the world. I can’t see the logic behind that. Can you?

We still have to put up another tent, some wind protection, and the solar panels to power this laptop and our communication equipment. So, stay tuned.
-Stefan

Day one:
Which I think is a Wednesday, but days don’t mean anything up here, and neither does time.

I climbed to the tree sit today for the first day of this peaceful beautiful protest to stop work and raise awareness of the of the ancient forests of Tasmania. High up here I can hear the log trucks as they thunder passed us, carrying away logs from nearby forests.
I started crying on the way up here, it is so beautiful, scarred only by the logging roads around us.

It is windy and cold and the camera men want to take lots of photos of us. It is windy and the rain rolls in from the mountains in the West. Fat droplets of rain, pound against our bright rain coats.
Driving in here I saw the destruction around the valley. So here I am at the top of the tree, it is very high and I expect to feel maybe slightly scared or nervous, but it is so busy having my photo taken.

Day two:
It feels like I have been here forever. Above us a flock of black cockatoos cry their songs. I can see forever into the mist around the mountains.
The sun has shone down on us today and for a few moments the wind is still, but not for long, buffeting around the valley. Hidden in the tent I see little but feel a lot.
I feel frustration and I feel anger, I want to be able to communicate how I feel about what’s going on. A lot of Tasmanians don’t feel that they are being listened to, this is one way that I feel that my feelings are being heard.

Why am I here? I am here because while we are up here they cannot log this magnifiecent forest. What else can I say, I am happy here and I want to be here.
- Felicity

I am sitting in a little dome tent near the top of one of the world's really really tall trees, Eucalyptus regnan, the worlds tallest flowering plant. I choose to be spending my days and nights 25 storeys up in this amazing organism as a way to peacefully highlight the plight of Tasmania’s ancient forests.
To bring to the minds of the people of Tassie the sad and terrible mistake that is being allowed to happen by the government as it sanctions Gunns Ltd, indeed subsidises them, to cut these trees, destroying forever the biodiversity, the value, and beauty of the forest.

I have been an activist in varying degrees for my whole adult life. Since an early age I have known that through greed and ignorance the human race is steadily ruining its own planet. What is happening here in Tasmania is a classic example of this. Gunns and the government are stealing the heritage of their people. They are denying their kids and grand kids a hugely valuable and renewable resource. And it gets worse. These massive trees are fixed carbon, to burn them (which is the ultimate end of all cut trees) is to add millions of tonnes of carbon to our already over heating planet. The forest may also contain new medicines and as yet undiscovered plants, animals and insects. To loose all this for so little is just down right stupid.

Ok, well enough ranting on that subject and on with the day. We’ve got to level the middle sit, put up more walls, get the kitchen happening better than the milk crate full of bags and buckets, sort out more banner lines, rig the second solar panel, get the loo a bit more private - and user friendly - and countless other small tasks that are not so small at 65m in a harness keeping 2 points of attachment at all times.
-Adam

Japanese activist Sakyo Noda, 26, was until recently a volunteer at Greenpeace Japan, and crewed on the Rainbow Warrior last year. Sakyo is currently living near Cairns, Queensland.
See VIDEO (mpg, 3.6Mb) of Sakyo from the Global Rescue Station (in Japanese, plus extra footage).

There we are – all up the tree. Angela, Felicity, Sakyo, Adrian, Will, Staumn and me, Stefan. And the tree - the true star of the expedition. A big gum tree, they call it. Or eucalyptus regnans, I think. And when I say big, I mean bigger than any tree that I have ever seen back home in Germany or Europe. And because I haven’t been to the redwoods in North America, it is the tallest tree that I have ever seen. I will think of some comparison for the next time, because it seems difficult to imagine a 84.2m high tree – at least I couldn’t imagine it before I got here. And it also looks different than any tree that I have seen before. But, more about the tree next time.

The weather greeted us with heavy gusts, rain, and even some snowflakes landing on our tree sit, on the two small banners we attached on top of the three platforms we have up so far. We are still moving in in a way, so we don’t have everything up yet.

We watched the press conference down below us in the morning. But we couldn’t hear what anyone was saying, because it is difficult to shout down in calm weather and with the wind blowing it is impossible to communicate without a radio. After the press conference a few photographers and a camera-man came up to visit us. This is still going on and I will try to give you more details about it. I am sitting right now in the only tent we have yet. And the photographer is sitting right next to me taking photos while I type these letters. Now he is getting out of the tent again to take some more shots. So, we will spend the next hours going on like that, before we start preparing for the night.
- Stefan

From the top ... Activists crowd the tiny platforms suspended from one of the Styx Valley giants.

There are a number of platforms each used for different purposes - communications, living room, sleeping and kitchen. It's like a small home for six people from different backgrounds. But there is an up-side. One of the inhabitants reports having seen a Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle swoop right past his nose. The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle is one of Australia's most endangered birds.

The question on everyone's lips is where, in this home among the gum trees, is the loo?

View from a passing helicopter. Greenpeace and The Wilderness Society and many people from Tasmania and around the nation want the Styx Valley forest to be saved from the prospects of becoming woodchips, the profit of which goes to a 'privileged' few and the lost wilderness becomes a memory that won't bear a happy re-telling for future generations.
Click pic for larger image.

Angela Woodcock is one of the tree-people. She is from Canada.

Listen to Angela (mp3, 120k)



More sound:
Felicity Harris (Australia)
Noda Sakyo (in Japanese)
Stefan Salz (in German)