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 FORESTRY'S DESTRUCTION OF KOALA HABITAT

In a media release on 7th July North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) spokesperson Dailan Pugh was very critical of the inadequate fines imposed by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) on the NSW Forestry Corporation for logging Koala High Use Areas in Royal Camp State Forest 16 km south-west of Casino in northern NSW.

The EPA fines, issued almost a year after the breaches, were $300 each for the three penalty notices for logging within a Koala High Use Area and failing to mark the boundary of a Koala High Use Area.

Mr Pugh pointed out that the Forestry Corporation continued logging in nearby koala areas "under the nose of the EPA while the Ministers repeatedly refused [NEFA] requests for an independent assessment."

He said that the Forestry Corporation plans to resume logging in Royal Camp in June had been held up by wet weather but, as the area was drying out, it was expected they would resume logging any day.

"Last Thursday we inspected two small sections of the area they are intending to log and found both contained Koala High Use Areas. Given that the Forestry Corporation still refuse to accept that they need to thoroughly search for Koala scats, it is evident they will go on trashing core Koala habitat.

"From our investigations it is evident that Royal Camp is one of the most important areas of public land for Koalas in the Northern Rivers region. The loggers should not be allowed near it again. This forest should be fully protected as a national park," Mr Pugh said.

Report on the NEFA inspection of Royal Camp State Forest, Compartment 13

LOGGING IN CORE KOALA HABITAT IN NORTHERN NSW

In a Media Release on 13^th June the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) called on the Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, to intervene to convince the NSW Government to stop logging core Koala habitat, this time in Koreelah State Forest near the juncture of the Border and Great Dividing Ranges, 15 kilometres north-west of Woodenbong.

Spokesperson for NEFA, Dailan Pugh, said a weekend audit of Koreelah State Forest again found a Koala High Use Area that had been logged in contravention of the prescriptions mandated under the North East NSW Regional Forest Agreement, signed by both State and Federal Governments in 2000.

"On Sunday we randomly selected one hectare that had already been logged and thoroughly searched around the 36 Tallowwood and Grey Gum trees and stumps within it for Koala scats. Despite our searching being hampered by logging debris, in one area we located one tree with 30 Koala scats from a mother and baby under it and 3 other sequential trees with Koala scats under them.This area thus qualifies as a Koala High Use Area that should have had a 20m buffer placed around it and been excluded from logging.

"Not one of the trees we searched had been searched by anyone before us, despite Forestry Corporation being legally required to thoroughly search 100 trees within this same area for Koala scats before logging and to protect Koala High Use Areas.

"Based on our random sample it is evident that many other Koala High Use Areas are likely to have been logged, with others about to be logged.

"The North East Forest Alliance undertook a reconnaissanceof Koreelah on 10 May and wrote to Mr Nick Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, Forestry Corporation of NSW, complaining that nobody appeared to be searching for Koala scats.Both he and the supposed Environmental Protection Authority denied our concerns.

"Last August we found 4 Koala High Use Areas in Royal Camp State Forest, one was being actively logged and three were about to be logged.While we convinced the NSW Ministers for the Environment and Primary Industries to intervene to stop logging those areas they allowed it to continue in an adjacent area.When we found another high use area logged the Ministers allowed the logging to continue into yet another Koala High Use Area.

"Koalas have deserted all the logged High Use Areas we have found and the Forestry Corporation is actively targeting the mature feed trees they rely on.

"Given the EPA's failure to take action in relation to Royal Camp almost a year later, it is not surprising that Forestry Corporation continue to log without looking while the responsible NSW Ministers turn a blind eye.

"The Commonwealth relies upon the Regional Forest Agreements to satisfy their obligations to protect the nationally vulnerable Koala.Given that NSW refuses to implement the prescriptions intended to protect core Koala habitat Tony Burke must now intervene to provide the urgently needed protection the Koala deserves," Mr. Pugh said.

Fauna expert, David Milledge, who surveyed the area, stated "My records of Albert's Lyrebird and Koala indicate that the prescriptions that should have been implemented were not. I consider that adequate and seasonally appropriate surveys (including Koala mark-up searches) should be undertaken before further logging occurs". 




NEFA's Koreelah State Forest Audit
 

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.