DEAR News Of The Area,

SINCE time immemorial, the Gumbaynggirr Nation has cared for country and we know that the Dunggirr is sacred to the First Nations peoples of Bellingen Shire.

For over three decades, The Bellingen Environment Centre Inc. (BEC) has actively fought for the protection of our precious and endangered koalas at Pine Creek state Forest and Tuckers Nob State Forest.

Any plan to slow down or stop the extinction of the koala in the wild, must include the precious habitat contained within Pine Creek State Forest and Tuckers Nob Forest.

This is imperative as koalas cannot read signs or distinguish boundaries between native forests, state forest plantations or your backyard.

Ecologists have long identified Bongil Bongil and Bindarri National Parks as the nursery to our colony of koalas described as the most significant colony of koalas in the wild, across the nation.

Over decades locals and tourists have come to know about the Gleniffer koalas, through registered sightings and expert evidence.

Yet the koala’s feed trees keep falling, even though Forestry Corporation of NSW (FC NSW) has no social licence.

The knowledge of the ongoing demise of our local koalas is deeply and collectively traumatic to individuals and the community as a whole and exacerbates climate change anxiety.

After operating within our Shire for over three decades, FC NSW have deliberately withdrawn any connection with the community and take no responsibility for the cumulative damage that the corporation has inflicted on our community’s waterways, roads and bridges.

The ALP continues to allow both Federal and NSW environmental protection laws to fail miserably.

Australia is a world leader in species extinction and declines.

If we are to stop another marsupial extinction we must find unity locally.

This means we need to rethink the age-old argument between plantations versus habitat.

This requires courage because we all need to have these conversations regarding the remnants in plantations and the wildlife therein.

The Black Summer fires changed everything.

The BEC is calling for unity amongst all those people who are working to preserve and protect our forests and care about our future.

We are in a climate emergency.

It’s time to wake up.

Regards,
Cath EAGLESHAM,
Chairperson,
Bellingen Environment Centre.