Interview: Bert Lobert gives us an insight into the legal struggle to protect Victoria's Strathbogie Forest

Bert Lobert and his compatriots from "Save our Strathbogie Forest" are eager to keep what remains of the forest intact, especially for all the animals who live there and, of course, the thousands of people who enjoy the amenities it provides. The focus of the original legal case put by the group was the Southern Greater Glider (a young Greater Glider is pictured looking out from its threatened forest home), but Justice Horan found that "planned burns" in the forest were not a threat to the Greater Glider population. The Stratbogie group had been raising money through Chuffed to help fund its legal costs, but that is now closed, so those eager to support the campaign should contact Mr Lobert directly. The group's appeal against the planned burns will be held at the High Court in Melbourne on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 20 and 21. People are welcome to personally sit through the hearing or can watch it live via the High Court website. Writing on its website, the group says: "We’re appealing the recent Federal Court ruling on planned burns, which allowed the Victorian government to burn parts of the Strathbogie Forest last Autumn. Our legal argument stems from the knowledge that the Strathbogie Forest is home to one of the healthiest populations of the Endangered Southern Greater Glider in Victoria. But our broader concern is for the long-term health of the forest -the complex partnership of plants, fungi, microbes and animals- and the beneficial influence a healthy forest has for everyone and everything that shares that landscape."