Tag: logging

Time to stop wasting our public land and resources

Posted by on in Spring 2022Leave a comment

Danielle Ryan, NPA Conservation Campaigner

With more than two hundred years of unsustainable logging practices, it is time for NSW and Tasmania to join the other states in Australia to put an end to native forestry logging on public land.

Forestry Corporation is acting like a rogue government agency — it was prosecuted and fined four times in June for illegally logging koala habitat and fire-affected forests. This includes fines and costs totalling $285,600 destroying koala habitat at Wild Cattle Creek on the mid-North Coast. Yet, the government is permitting our state-owned corporation to ramp up its activity. The fine for this illegal logging activity by a state-owned entity will be paid for out of the public purse.

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Forestry Corporation’s last dash to log koala habitat on the mid-North Coast

Posted by on in Spring 2022Leave a comment

Danielle Ryan and James Sherwood, Conservation Campaigners

“They are rushing. They can see the end is coming,” says koala expert John Pile. He is referring to Forestry Corporation’s overzealous response to the recently renewed North Coast Wood Supply Agreement, which allows logging to continue for another five years.

The mood amongst local campaigners living in the proposed Great Koala National Park region is grim, as they watch Forestry Corporation slowly chip away at public forests known as core koala habitat.

Overall, there are 20 State Forests in the proposed area for The Great Koala National Park which have been designated for logging, as ‘proposed’, ‘planned’ or ‘active’. As of July 2022, Forestry Corporation are actively harvesting three State Forests in the area, Clouds Creek (Compartments 30, 31, 32, 33), Ellis (3, 4, 5, 6) and Thumb Creek (5,6) and have approval for four more Bagawa (1), Boambee (4,5,6,7), Collombati (9,10) and Conglomerate (23).

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More parks the solution to dire environmental situation

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The National Parks Association of NSW welcomes Commonwealth Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s commitment to protect a third of Australia’s land and the seas by 2030.

“Today’s release of the National State of the Environment Report confirms the dire condition of our natural landscapes, biodiversity and climate,” stated NPA President Dr Grahame Douglas.

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Out of control Forestry Corporation caught destroying more Koala habitat

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The NSW Forestry Corporation has yet again been prosecuted for destroying public native forests.  The latest prosecution is for illegal activity in the heart of one of the world’s great forests, the proposed Great Koala National Park.

“Any confidence in Forestry Corporation’s planning and governance lies in tatters after yet another breach,” said National Parks Association CEO Gary Dunnett.

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Prosecution Of Forestry Corporation Shows They Are Unfit To Manage Our State Forests

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The Land and Environment Court’s decision to fine NSW Forestry Corporation for destroying koala habitat at Cattle Creek near Coffs Harbour shows Forestry Corporation is woefully unfit for managing our State Forests. 

The Great Koala National Park, an initiative of the National Parks Association of NSW, calls for the immediate end to all logging on public native forests in NSW, in light of the court’s decision. 

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Koala Protection in NSW: how our most valued native animal is abused

Posted by on in Winter 2021Leave a comment

Gary Dunnett, Executive Officer, NPA NSW

The koala populations of NSW were decimated during the first quarter of the 20th century by commercial hunting for the fur trade.  Many local populations were pushed towards or into extinction.  We’re now nearly a hundred years since the peak of commercial hunting and many areas, especially in the south-eastern corner of the State, remain largely bereft of koalas.  In other places, especially those with limited accessibility, such as the military lands in southwestern Sydney and the dense forests of the northeast, koala populations staged major recoveries after the cessation of commercial harvesting.   

Unfortunately, that recovery had largely come to an end by the 1970s as habitat loss from coastal development, agricultural clearing and forestry, along with increasing mortality due to collisions with motor vehicles, dog attacks and infectious diseases, all took their toll on local koala populations.  The result is that, as we approached 2021, the NSW Upper House Inquiry into the future of koalas in NSW concluded that, without significant change in the way we protect koalas and their habitats, the species will become functionally extinct (ie incapable of maintaining viable local populations) in NSW within the next 50 years.  

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