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

FURTHER THREAT TO NSW NATIONAL PARKS

O'Farrell Government Plans to Log National Parks

Last year the O'Farrell Government caved in to the Shooters and Fishers Party and announced it would allow recreational hunters into some of the state's National Parks.  Now it is planning to open up national parks in the north east of the state to logging. 

In a Media Release issued on 11^th February North East Forests Alliance (NEFA) spokesperson Dailan Pugh said, "The Forest Products Association are 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. So far they have identified over 100,000 hectares of 43 specific reserves they want revoked.

"In the Northern Rivers the loggers have so far singled out 12 reserves they want to be wholly or partially revoked for logging: Wollumbin, Mebbin, Nightcap, Goonengerry, Guy Fawkes River, Chaelundi, and Nymboi-Binderay National Parks, and Wollumbin, Whian Whian , Bungawalbin, Butterleaf, and Chaelundi State Conservation Areas.

"The O'Farrell Government is currently assessing the timber resources in these reserves with a view to opening them up for logging."

In mid-December NEFA wrote to the Northern Rivers State Members (MPs) of Parliament (all members of the National Party which is in coalition with the Liberals as the State Government) asking if they supported "logging within, or revocation for logging of, any National Parks, Nature Reserves or State Conservation Areas on the far North Coast of NSW". 

Two MPs, Chris Gulaptis and Geoff Provest, did not respond and the other two, Thomas George and Don Page, gave equivocal replies.

"We need local members who are prepared to stand up for the north coast and not stand aside while our national parks are given to the shooters and loggers. The electors of the Northern Rivers must assume that the Government members for Lismore, Clarence, Tweed and Ballina have no intention to stand up for the local national parks that this community had to struggle for decades to protect," said Mr Pugh.

Many community members campaigned for years to have these special areas protected within the National Parks Estate.  The O'Farrell Government's continued attack on areas which protect the state's biodiversity is a further slap in the face for these people.  And it once again shows the lack of  O'Farrell's understanding of the purpose of national parks.

And what a sorry lot are our Northern Rivers MPs! They've already proved totally inadequate in supporting their local communities in relation to the coal seam gas mining threat.  And they obviously have no concerns about opening up national parks to the blood sports lobby.

Perhaps they feel it's not necessary to represent their communities' views at this time because they don't have to face their electorates until March 2015.  Presumably they also believe that voters have very short memories.

There is more information on this issue on a new website: SAVE PARKS
Electronic letters to politicians are also available on this website.

THE NSW GOVERNMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT

In a recent media release, Luke Foley MLC, Shadow Minister for the Environment, stated that logging in NSW National Parks was "on the cards" after a NSW parliamentary budgets estimate hearing.

During the hearing the NSW Minister for the Environment, Robyn Parker MP, refused to rule out logging in National Parks – an activity which is completely inappropriate in areas established for biodiversity conservation.

The current NSW Liberal-National Party Government has shown, in its 18 months in government,  scant interest in protecting the environment.

Some months ago the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, announced the government would allow recreational hunting in 79 National Parks and Nature Reserves as part of a deal with the Shooters Party to secure their votes in the upper house for electricity privatisation. 

Since then it has become apparent that the Shooters are expecting access to much more than the original 79 areas promised them.  Furthermore, these hunters are expecting that the procedures for hunting in National Parks will follow the same lines as those governing recreational hunting in State Forests.  This is a slack system which will not work in National Parks.  Aside from the safety issues – for both human users of parks as well as the fauna that is supposed to be protected in these areas – there are a number of other issues.  These include the "locking up" of parks so that hunters can enjoy their blood sport and unlikelihood that their culling of pest species will have any real impact on feral species numbers.

And then there's the Government's attitude to coal seam gas mining and its trumpeted measures – balanced measures according to the Minister for Planning  -  to "protect" the community and the environment from any problems caused by this industry.  The simple fact is the Government is in thrall to this industry and is ignoring the long-term economic and environmental impacts it will have on the citizens of this state – long after the quick-quid miners have left with their spoils.  All the vaunted protective measures are nothing but hollow spin.

Now, back to Robyn Parker's performance at the recent estimates hearing.  Luke Foley claims that she has learnt nothing in the last twelve months.  This is incorrect.  Many months ago she roundly ridiculed someone who claimed the Government would allow recreational hunters into National Parks.   She was proved wrong there.  She has learnt from this and obviously does not want to be made to look a fool again in case the Premier, that champion of the natural environment, decides to allow logging in National Parks.