NSW GOVERNMENT REJECTS CALL TO LOG NATIONAL PARKS

Those who value our NSW National Parks are relieved at the State Government’s rejection of a parliamentary inquiry's recommendation that more than one million hectares of the northern NSW National Parks estate be opened up to logging. 

Background to the Recommendation
 In 2012 General Purpose Standing Committee No 5,  a committee of the NSW Legislative Council (the state’s upper house), held an inquiry into the management of public lands in NSW. This Inquiry was at the instigation of the Shooters and Fishers Party (which has two members in the NSW Parliament) and Liberal/National Party members of the committee.  According to the Committee Chair, the Shooters and Fishers Party's Robert Brown, the inquiry was to "thoroughly review how public and private land is acquired and converted into conservation land, and the effectiveness of public land management practices dealing with fire hazards, weeds and pests, and issues such as public access and land use."
It was quite obvious that the inquiry was motivated by a desire to attack national parks and the reasons for their existence and  to question the decision-making process in the creation of national parks in the  previous decade or so.     

The Committee's Report  which is available on the Inquiry website  was published in May 2013 and the Government had until this month to respond to the report and its recommendations.
 
The Recommendation to Log National Parks

Recommendation 10 of the Report:

That the NSW Government immediately identify appropriate reserved areas for release to meet the levels of wood supply needed to sustain the timber industry, and that the NSW Government take priority action to release these areas, if necessary by a ‘tenure swap’ between national park estate and State forests. In particular, urgent action is required for the timber industry in the Pilliga region.

  

This recommendation was the result of the anti-environment and anti-National Parks stance of the  committee's conservative majority as well as the extensive lobbying by the NSW Forest Products Association (FPA).  The FPA used the Inquiry to publicise its concerns about the impending supply shortfall from the state’s public native forests in the north of the state.  This shortfall is the inevitable result of years of over-commitment of timber resources in our state forests by the state’s forest bureaucracy.

The NSW Government Response
In its official response on 19 November the NSW Government rejected the call for logging in National Parks.

The peak North Coast conservation body, the North Coast Environment Council (NCEC), welcomed the Government’s  decision.

 “There is little doubt that the Government has seen the support and love that National Parks enjoy from a wide spectrum of the community.  There has been overwhelming opposition to its decision to allow hunting in National Parks.  Logging was clearly a bridge too far,” said NCEC President Susie Russell.

While welcoming the decision, North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) spokesperson Dailan Pugh has called on the Government to reduce logging quotas to a sustainable level so that the hardwood sawlog industry has a future in our area.

“The Government must come clean with the public by releasing last year’s timber review and acting urgently to stop the gross over-logging of publicly owned lands,” Mr Pugh said.

NSW GOVERNMENT RECORD ON NATIONAL PARKS

Letter to Chris Gulaptis, State Member for Clarence

I am writing this letter to express my extreme disappointment in the present State Government's philosophy and actions in regard to our National Parks, Nature Reserves and State Conservation Areas.

Having been heavily involved in the battle to save the rainforests in the late 70s early 80s; being highly conscious of Australia's deplorable rate of extinctions of our fellow creatures; having been involved in the education of our children for 41 years and having taken groups of young people into our National Parks on Duke of Edinburgh Scheme bushwalks and being conscious of what a National Park really is .............  I am appalled that these protected areas are being opened up for recreational shooting and that logging is being considered.

I have been informed that the Forest Products Association is asking for over a million hectares of north-east NSW's National Parks, Nature Reserves and State Conservation Areas to be made available for logging.  It seems that they have identified over 100,000 hectares of specific reserves that they want revoked.

Our protected areas are a priceless asset for our fellow creatures.  They are a gift to the future, a stepping stone to preserving  all life on our planet.

For a government to consider allowing shooting and logging in these areas is an indication of its short-term, anthropocentric values which will ensure destruction of the invaluable concept of protection of natural ecosystems.

Our children's values will be influenced by the messages that these actions will generate, messages that will cry out loudly - "These areas are not really protected", or "We don't need to protect them".

What is your position on these issues?

If you oppose logging in National Parks are you prepared to publicly say so?

What do you think John Muir, the father of America's national parks, would think of these proposals?

    - Stan Mussared