Angry Australian farmers plan tree-felling protest
CANBERRA, May 30 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Australian farmers are planning to chop down protected trees on their properties in a day of protest against strict land-clearing laws, prompting public condemnation on Wednesday from environment groups.
Fed up with government restrictions on the use of their land, the farmers in New South Wales state are organising a day of civil disobedience on July 1, with proposals to cut down a tree on each property.
"It's been a long campaign by farmers who have been sidelined by the government. This day of clearing a tree, taking a tree out, has been bandied about for a long time," local farmer Alistair McRoberts told Australian radio on Wednesday.
The move comes as the Australian and New South Wales governments continue their investigation into whether one farmer in the Gwydir Valley bulldozed part of an internationally protected wetland and cleared it of vegetation.
Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned farmers against breaking any laws on land clearing or tree felling, saying that this would constitute criminal action rather than an act of civil disobedience.
"The proposition that we're all entitled to do with our land whatever we like is simply not true, whether you live in the country or the city," Turnbull said on Tuesday.
McRoberts said his group represented a minority of farmers, but after more than a decade of talks with governments and environment groups, many farmers in the Gwydir Valley had not been properly compensated for locking away large tracts of land.
He said the government wanted to stop land clearing because it wanted the vegetation to be used to offset carbon pollution from the country's vast coal industry.
In a joint statement, Australia's Wilderness Society, WWF Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation said the planned protest should be condemned.
"This threat from a small bunch of extremists, who seem to think they can do whatever they like with the land, is giving Australian farmers a bad name," Conservation Foundation spokesman Corey Watts said.
