farmdoc's blog post number 352

I’ve previously written [1,2] of the environment group Still Wild Still Threatened, and its non-violent direct action campaign to halt the logging of old growth forest in southern Tasmania’s Upper Florentine Valley. I’ve never been to the Florentine Valley, but from the photographs I’ve seen, its forests are ancient and spectacular. So much so that earlier this year our friend Miff was arrested and charged for being inside Forestry Tasmania’s Upper Florentine Valley ‘exclusion zone’. Last Sunday the biennial Ten Days on the Island arts festival ended. To coincide with this year’s Ten Days, an art exhibition, ‘Shadows in the Forest – The Art of Exclusion’ was set up inside the same exclusion zone. All of which introduces today’s Farmdoc’s Blog topic: last Saturday Sue Lester and Greg Smith brought me a new wombat. Her name’ s Florence (Flo for short) because she’s from the Florentine Valley where her mum was killed by a vehicle (I don’t know if it was a logging vehicle). When she was found, Flo weighed 215 grams. Now she’s a robust 15kg – probably the biggest/heaviest wombat I’ve received – so all going well, I aim to release her in 4-5 weeks time. The pen has rehabilitated well since 28 February when I released Otis. Florence is the tenth wombat – sixth girl – it’s been my privilege to have here. Yo, Flo.