ecotourism for our forests - now that's a good idea

Parks Victoria has selected Australian Zipline Canopy Tours as the preferred provider of a Guided Canopy Tour in the Toolangi State Forest. A zipline tour is a 'tree top' experience, visitors traverse the forest via ziplines (flying fox style) whilst enjoying the beauty of our forests and learning about the local environment.

Parks Victoria is looking for feedback from the community on the proposed Guided Canopy Tour. There will be an information session tonight at the Forest Discovery Centre in Toolangi (drop in anytime between 5:30pm to 7:30pm).

What a positive idea for the forests in Toolangi, nature based tourism is a great way to expand the local economy, and Toolangi is well placed being so close to Melbourne and the Yarra Valley. Although the tourists might find the logging coupes a little offputing.

This map shows the general location of the proposed zipline course (the blue ellipse), the other areas marked by dotted lines on the map are logging coupes currently being logged in the Sylvia Creek region of the Toolangi Forest (click here for background info).

The drop in session will allow interested community members to discuss the proposal with the operator, Parks Victoria and the DSE.

If you can't make it to the session, don't despair, you can also provide feedback via the Parks Victoria website here.

Closing date for feedback is 2 September 2011.