A trespass charge levelled at former Greens leader Bob Brown over an anti-logging protest could be dropped because of technicalities surrounding his arrest.
Brown and fellow activists Kristy Lee Alger and Karen Lynne Weldrick have pleaded not guilty to trespassing over action at a forestry coupe in the state's Eastern Tiers on November 8, 2022.
The trio say they were protecting nesting habitat of the critically endangered swift parrot.
Their joint hearing was adjourned on Tuesday after their lawyers argued the section of legislation used by Forestry Tasmania which led to their arrest was invalid.
Magistrate Jackie Hartnett will decide on Wednesday morning whether the hearing can continue.
Brown was expected to give evidence in Hobart Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
On Monday, Sustainable Timber Tasmania forest officer Dion McKenzie told the court a habitat tree, earlier used by a sit-in activist as part of the protest, was felled on November 8.
He said it was cut down on safety grounds as it was over-mature and had features likely to make it suspect to falls.
Mr McKenzie also agreed with the suggestion from the activists' lawyer Kathleen Foley SC the tree was meant to be retained but was not.
Speaking outside court, Brown claimed the tree was the only swift parrot nesting site in the coupe.
He described the felling as an "act of official vandalism and spite, meant to distress those of us trying to protect the swift parrots".
Mr McKenzie told the court when he arrived at the coupe he saw about 10 people who were not authorised to be there.
He said he asked the group to leave because he deemed their presence unsafe, which seven of them did.
The court was told at one point Brown was sitting on a tree stump while Alger and Weldrick had attached themselves to machinery.
Australian Associated Press
