After being targeted by private investigators hired by a state-owned timber supplier, environmentalist Sarah Rees is calling for permanent protection of Victoria's old-growth forests.
Ms Rees was followed by a private investigator hired by VicForests for about four days in 2011, but continued campaigning against the native timber logging industry.
Now, she is pushing for the state's national parks to be expanded.
The Victorian government brought forward the closure of the native timber industry from 2030 to the end of this year, allocating $200 million to help with the transition away from the industry.
"It certainly comes as a comfort for those of us who've worked on the frontline to try and protect these forests," Ms Rees said.
"Personally I'm relieved and deeply overjoyed by the outcome but also emotionally left brittle and distressed by it."
She is proposing the formation of the Great Forest National Park by adding 355,000 hectares of protected forests to the existing 170,000 hectares in the Central Highlands, about 60 kilometres north-east of Melbourne.
The initiative aims to protect the world's tallest flowering plant, mountain ash, and the habitats of endangered and threatened wildlife, such as the Leadbeater's possum.
"These forests are in jeopardy, these forests are down to about one per cent of their standing age as old-growth ... they are critically endangered," Ms Rees said.
"We're in an ecosystem that is deeply threatened.
"This has been a glorified fibre farm for logging for a long time so what we're going to see now is an opportunity to open up these areas and create better recreational opportunities."
An investigation last year revealed 90,000 hectares of old-growth forests in East Gippsland that were earmarked for protection by the state government continued to be logged.
The Supreme Court ordered stricter logging rules in November after it found VicForests had failed to adequately protect the yellow-bellied glider and the endangered greater glider.
Ms Rees said VicForests stopping operations would signal the beginning of a new era.
"I think we've turned a corner to see that now the Andrews government will commit to environment and importantly has committed to a decisive act on climate change," she said.
"What we don't want to see is at the end of this term ... a new government come in and make sweeping changes to the reforms that Andrews has made, and these areas end up logged again."
Wildlife of the Central Highlands member and environmental scientist Alana Mountain conducts wildlife surveys in logged forests.
She said it had been an "emotional rollercoaster" to witness the "constant cycle of death and destruction" of forests and wildlife as a result of the native timber industry.
"We are privy to some of the most incredible parts of forests and then we watched them disappear before our eyes when we're unable to detect those [animal] species that were granted protections," Ms Mountain said.
"It's caused widespread fragmentation of their habitat, it's caused certain species to decline and plummet in numbers such as the greater glider which has gone from listed, to threatened, to endangered in a very short amount of time."
The Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20 burnt about 1.5 million hectares of land in Victoria, leaving 244 species of plants and animals with less than half of their previous statewide habitat.
"Post-bushfires it's extremely devastating to witness the loss of millions of animals as well as the continued destruction of their home and there being no reprieve for these animals in the long-term," Ms Mountain said.
A 2021 After the Logging report found VicForests was not adequately regenerating the state's logged native forests, with a third of coupes failing to recover.
The report found forests that were considered to have successfully regenerated had incorrect species growing back and were weed-infested.
Ms Mountain said VicForests improperly restored forests by distributing seeds aerially without careful management.
"We need to go back to an on-the-ground way of taking care of the land and engaging with First Nations people and taking a leaf out of their book about how to care for Country and care for place," she said.
"It's about going there and putting your hands in the soil and making sure things are growing back in the way they're meant to."
A Victorian government spokesperson said the government would work with traditional owners and local communities to manage the 1.8 million hectares of public land.
But Forest & Wood Communities Australia spokesperson Michael Harrington said the timber industry was best-placed to look after forests, and they needed to be continually managed.
"The lock-and-leave approach ... is absolutely absurd. We have interfered as white settlers in the land systems of this country so radically that it is no longer a time to leave the forest alone, they have to be actively managed," he said.
"Otherwise you will have problems, pests, weeds, pest animals, and really bad results for ecology."
Ms Harrington has a firewood business and said he now sourced wood from northern NSW, instead of in his region of Gippsland, since restrictions were applied.
"I now get it from 17 hours away, so when I bring down a B-double load of timber or logs, what's happening now is I'm using 1,500 litres of diesel to get it here," he said.
"Now I'm not sure about in the environmentalist's book or the activist's book, if that's good for the environment. In my book, it's not."
Mr Harrington was concerned that without logging, potential bushfires would be more difficult to control.
"We now have a resource that is not going to be used, it's going to be burnt," he said.
"The next time a bushfire comes, because the fire break of the next fires won't be established by the timber industry, the next fire break will be the Bass Strait."