Executive Officer Steve Dobbyns, a veteran forest scientist, says the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has let down both the Premier and communities across the State by grossly exaggerating the number of koalas within some “koala hubs” by using a count of scats (koala poo) instead of actual koalas.

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“A look under the hood at the data shows that numerous koala sightings within the koala hubs have impossibly high numbers,” he said.

“[There are] literally hundreds of koalas recorded at a single site, because the Department has not vetted the data.

“That is the quality of Maths and Science being used by the Department to provide advice to the Government.”

While the NSW Government describes koala hubs as “areas where there is strong evidence of multi-generational, high-density populations”, FWCA notes there is no published, peer-reviewed research to support these claims.

FWCA has also identified multiple data entries of the same koala sighting and questioned how the Department could determine if some of the koala hubs had “strong evidence of multi- generational” koala populations.

“Despite koala sightings across the landscape dating back almost a century, the only records of koalas in some of the hubs were from the same point in time.

“There is no evidence of multi-generational use.

“With more than 8900 jobs and $2.9 billion injected into our economy each year from our sustainable native forest industry in NSW, it is critical for our State’s future prosperity that the Government makes its decision on the Great Koala National Park based on credible, up to date information.”

The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) says that the industry lobby is spreading “false information” in its attempts to stop the GKNP.

NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh, said the forestry industry is well aware that the identification of koalas was based upon comprehensive drone surveys.

Repeated night time surveys were undertaken using infrared, at 169 sites, each around 59ha in size.

The data from the surveys, involving 4000 kms of drone flight by a team of 26 drone pilots, was extrapolated to map the density of koalas across the GKNP.

It identified a total population of 12,000 koalas, according to Mr Pugh.

This is supported by a recently released report by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

“Loggers had their own GKNP Industry Advisory Panel that oversaw this project from beginning to end, including the final report, without raising any concerns.

“For Forest and Wood Communities Australia to claim that the koala assessment was based upon scat searches in koala hubs is outrageous.”

He also pointed out that NEFA estimates there are only 118 to 218 direct jobs that can be considered at risk within north-east NSW.

By Andrew VIVIAN