“Stewarding the land involves maintaining a clear and safe track for visitors to use, so the impact of visitors is contained to a small area. It also involves working to remove a large patch of gorse at an old mill site.” Yanti Winoto-Lewin, Award Winner.

Recognised for her outstanding efforts to protect Tasmania’s unique ecosystems, connect communities to natural places and foster respect for the environment, Yanti established the group Friends of Franklin Forest (FoFF) in 2020 while in her final year of a plant science/geography degree at the University of Tasmania. The group’s main activities are stewarding an area of forest, introducing people to the area and teaching about its ecology.

Thanks to FoFF’s petitioning and awareness raising, the area – which provides core habitat for threatened species such as the masked owl and swift parrot, but is in land zoned for timber production – has been removed from Forestry Tasmania’s three-year felling rotation, with the group now working to ensure it is removed altogether.