As she slammed on the brakes, Sandy Scheltema felt the crash of a large tree slamming to the forest floor in front of her bumper bar.

Scheltema – a former photographer with The Age – was in Wombat State Forest to investigate reports timber workers had strung a dead owl up in a noose to taunt anti-logging protesters, when she was confronted by a group of men wielding running chainsaws.

Wombat State Forest will be protected for future generations if the bill passes the upper house. Credit: Sandy Scheltema

Wanting to evade further conflict, Scheltema walked back to her car. She had begun to drive away when a mature peppermint tree came crashing down in front of her car – felled, she said, by one of the loggers.

“If I hadn’t slammed on the brakes, it would have landed on top of us,”

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