CONCERNS of local conservationists that Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW) is accelerating logging operations in areas proposed for the Great Koala National Park have reached the national media, helped by the Victorian Government’s decision to halt logging of native forests six years earlier than predicted.

Dailan Pugh from the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) said an assessment of the Forestry Corporation’s twelve month Plan of Logging Operations for the NSW North Coast found they include 41,000 hectares (ha) of nationally-important koala areas and 2,700 ha of koala hubs.

According to NEFA, in accordance with its National Recovery Plan, in 2021 the Commonwealth identified nationally important koala areas ‘as priority koala habitat for incorporation into state protected areas’ and, on the North Coast, 233,945 ha (23.6 percent) of these area occur in State Forests.

More particularly, the Forest Ecology Alliance (FEA) is concerned about current logging in Newry State Forest which it says is in close proximity to significant waterways.

“The special coastal lowland native forests of Newry State Forest are a key part of the proposed Great Koala National Park,” a FEA spokesperson said.

“These forests are also critical to the health of the Kalang River estuary (and the broader Bellinger River estuary) because a major estuarine sub-catchment, Picketts Hill Creek, falls entirely within Newry State Forest.”

The spokesperson said the estuary of the Bellinger and Kalang Rivers is the “golden goose” that sustains a significant majority of the economy of the coastal parts of the Bellingen Local Government Area.

FEA says the tourism, recreational fishing, oyster and commercial fishing industries of the Bellinger Valley are critically dependent upon the health and wellbeing of the estuary, as are local recreational uses such as swimming and other water sports, nature-based activities such as bird watching and walking and the general health and wellbeing of the local community.

“Many areas of Newry State Forest are alleged by the Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) to be ‘plantation’ but much of this is actually native forest with significant habitat values including habitat for nationally threatened species,” the spokesperson said.

On May 4, a logging crew contracted to FCNSW reportedly arrived at Newry State Forest, with trucks from four areas, and commenced what the FEA allege is a ‘military-style clear-fell operation’ across the catchment of Picketts Hill Creek, entirely removing forest from a large block of the proposed Great Koala National Park.

The spokesperson said functional coastal lowland forest cover has been turned into mud, dust and highly flammable logging ‘trash’, creating a massive risk of serious erosion and the runoff of a slurry of sediment into the Kalang River estuary during wet weather.

FCNSW has a different perspective.

A spokesperson told News Of The Area that Forestry Corporation’s current operations in Newry State Forest are taking place entirely within timber plantations, which were planted four decades ago on cleared farmland.

All plantations are independently assessed and authorised by the Department of Primary Industries to assure that they have been correctly identified as plantations, according to the spokesperson.

There are strict regulations for plantation operations in NSW that set out clear conditions for protecting waterways during plantation operations, including retaining existing vegetation along drainage lines and on steep slopes to protect against erosion and establishing buffer zones around waterways.

The spokesperson claimed Forestry Corporation has carried out an extensive plantation planning process to develop a detailed plan that maps all these protections and operations are independently regulated by the Department of Primary Industries.

Forestry Corp does not count timber plantations as native forests because they are specifically planted on land that has historically been cleared for timber production.

FCNSW maps and protects habitat for wildlife and koalas through the plantation area to maintain landscape connectivity and plantations are managed in a broader forested landscape that also includes habitat that is protected in native forest around the plantation.

FEA says the road reserve along Martells Road, a Bellingen Shire Council managed asset, has been cleared of threatened species habitat and native vegetation.

Their spokesperson said large old logs that are absolutely not ‘plantation’ logs (with diameters exceeding 60cm) have been documented leaving Newry State Forest along Martells Road.

She said Newry State Forest must be incorporated into the Great Koala National Park and it must be rehabilitated to koala habitat to give our koalas and other threatened species a lifeline as well as to prevent harm to the Kalang River
“This will generate and maintain significant employment and will provide perpetual and ongoing benefits to our economy.

“It will literally allow the golden goose to keep on laying.”

By Andrew VIVIAN