In a media release of September 7 the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA)
called on the community to speak out against the logging of core koala habitat
in Braemar State Forest south of Casino on the NSW North Coast.
NEFA undertook its third Koala assessment of
Braemar State
Forest last weekend and again found abundant Koala scats,
reaffirming that it
is one of the most significant Koala populations known on State
Forests,
according to NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.
"We now estimate that there are over 100ha of
Koala
High Use Areas, which is unprecedented on State Forests. Over
the past 20
years, across the hundreds of thousands of hectares they logged,
the Forestry
Corporation only found a total of 200ha of small scattered Koala
High Use Areas"
"Braemar encompasses core breeding habitat
that is part
of the nationally significant Koala population previously
identified across the
nearby Carwong and Royal Camp State Forests.
"Our appeals to the Premier to intervene and
ensure
that all Koala High Use Areas are identified and protected were
counter-productive. Instead the Government has decided to switch
over to the
new rules where Koala High Use Areas are no longer protected.
"A new Harvesting Plan was released last
Saturday and
logging is due to start on the auspicious date of Friday the
13th September.
"There are likely to be 60-90 Koalas living
in the area
they are about to trash.
"Now that Premier Berejiklian has removed
protection
for Koala High Use Areas the Forestry Corporation is also
proposing logging
compartment 13 Royal Camp SF where they were stopped in 2013
because of the
extensive Koala High Use Areas NEFA identified.
"The onslaught on the nationally significant
Koala
population on public lands of the Richmond lowlands is fully
underway. Spending
millions to build Koala hospitals is treating the symptoms. when
we most need to
stop trashing their homes to save them from extinction.
"We are calling on the community to speak up
for
Braemar's Koalas by spreading the word, writing to the Premier
and contacting
their local parliamentarians before it is too late.
"We are inviting people to come out to
Braemar, at the
Rappville turnoff 24 km south of Casino on the Summerland Way,
at 10am next
Sunday 15 September to stand up for Koalas", Mr. Pugh said.
"They are only expecting to get 1,400 cubic
metres of high
quality logs from flogging this Koala habitat.
