On Sunday, March 24, people around Australia, including Bega, took to the streets to March in March for Forests, something that has been a lifelong passion of Joslyn van der Moolen.
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She is a conservationist focussed on solutions.
In 2009 the Adelaide Hills Council gave her an Australia Day civic award for enabling fuel load reduction while protecting conservation-listed roadside vegetation in the fire-prone Mylor village's stringybark forest.
Since moving to the Batemans Bay region she has joined many local environmental groups.
Ms van der Moolen has been campaigning against native forest logging since 2018, helping Mogo residents to stop logging next to the village and on Dunns Creek Road.
Knitting Nannas
Last year she formed the South Coast loop of Knitting Nannas for Native Forests.
"We launched our Facebook page on World Environment Day on June 5.
"We hold Knit-ins at Forestry Corporation's Batemans Bay headquarters and hold actions that local young women and men also support," Ms van der Moolen said.
Knitting Nannas is a climate action group that "takes direct action rather than writing letters".
Coastwatchers Association
The Knitting Nannas' first Knit-in was on May 1, International Workers Day, which aligned with her forestry activism with the Coastwatchers Association.
The Knit-in was to support plantation workers.
"In our Coastwatchers Association's Forest Working Group, we don't just advocate to end native logging, we actively work towards the solution.
"We want forestry to focus 100 percent on softwood plantations that are profitable and job-rich because there is considerable processing of sawn timber for construction, allowing native forests to be retained for biodiverse carbon capture," Ms van der Moolen said.
The Forest Working Group monitors logging operations in southern NSW and provides tours of logged areas to politicians and visiting delegations to demonstrate issues around waste, fuel load and environmental impact.
Citizen science
Ms van der Moolen works to empower the community with digital citizen science tools and local knowledge about their forests.
It proved invaluable to the Brooman State Forest Conservation Group.
Coastwatchers is a member of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW that has set up www.breachwatch.org.au based on their citizen science techniques.
It documents how locals can trigger exclusion zones to protect threatened flora and fauna.
After threatened species are documented, the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) protects small areas so the state forest surrounding the record is no longer logged.
Professionally qualified
Ms van der Moolen recently completed a graduate certificate in environmental science.
She deferred her Masters studies to pursue direct outcomes on the ground.
"The most recent concern was logging in Flat Rock State Forest below Pigeon House in the Shoalhaven.
"Earlier this year I went out with the locals spotlighting for Greater Glider den trees following the EPA's Stop Work Order.
"The EPA created 100 metre circles of protection around five Greater Glider den trees found by the community next to the stalled logging machinery.
"Forestry has since withdrawn.
"Because of our surveying, these gliders that survived the fires will no longer come crashing to the ground," Ms van der Moolen said.
"I contributed information that resulted in the NSW Environmental Protection Authority's (EPA) stop work order to protect Tallaganda Greater Gliders."
