Birds Australia, Australia's biggest science-based conservation group, has called on Mr Garrett to take urgent action to stop woodchip logging from destroying food trees and nesting hollows in a key breeding area for the endangered swift parrot.

The parrots, rarer than China's giant panda or Borneo's orang-utans, are listed by the World Conservation Union in its Red Book of globally endangered species.

But Mr Garrett's office said yesterday he was powerless to intervene because forestry agreements were exempt from federal environment protection laws.

Fewer than 1000 pairs of swift parrots remain in the wild, and hundreds of the blossom-feeding birds have arrived in Wielangta's tall eucalypt forest, flying in over Bass Strait from the mainland's dry inland and coastal woodlands. It's the longest migration route of any parrot species, and the birds are often seen in Canberra during their brief stopovers.

All signs in recent weeks are pointing to the best breeding season in four years for the parrots, due to a bountiful blooming of Tasmanian blue gums in the Wielangta forest. But logging could begin within weeks.

Birds Australia's conservation manager, Chris Tzaros, said, ''We've seen females excavating hollows and getting ready for breeding, but those nesting hollows will all be lost, with devastating consequences for the species.''

The organisation wants the Federal and Tasmanian governments to agree to a five-year moratorium on logging in Wielangta and to provide funding for further scientific research to monitor breeding numbers.

Mr Tzaros said, ''It really does come down to Peter Garrett because this is a matter of national importance concerning an endangered species. He does have the power to act in this matter and, if he won't, then the Prime Minister should step in. '' For the past 13 years, Birds Australia has been involved in a national recovery program for the swift parrots, drawing on expertise from all eastern States and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mr Tzaros said, ''If logging of swift-parrot nesting habitat like Wielangta continues, then national conservation effort will have been undertaken in vain.

''We will lose birds and the impact of these losses will be so great that I believe it will be beginning of the end for the swift parrot.'' .

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown fought a protracted Federal Court legal battle to save the Wielangta forest and its endangered species. After a landmark decision upheld his case, it was overturned on a technicality following an appeal from the Tasmania and Federal governments.

Senator Brown was ordered to pay $200,000 in court costs and faces the prospect of losing his Liffey house.

''Wielangta is one of the richest nesting sites for the swift parrots and that was why I had no hesitation in trying to save the forest. I had no hesitation in choosing to save the forest over saving my house.''