The group says these compartments are home to healthy koala populations.

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The Bellingen Activist Network (BAN) has now established a camp in the forest to support the FOPC group.

The section of State Forest in question forms part of what activists call the ‘Forest Bridge’.

The Forest Bridge is a proposal to permanently conserve an area of public State Forest as a wildlife corridor south of Coffs Harbour, linking the coastal Bongil Bongil National Park to the western tablelands of Dorrigo World Heritage National Park and beyond.

To prevent logging, activists have now established a new blockade located at the intersection of Pine Creek State Forest and Bongil Bongil National Park.

According to the Bellingen Activist Network, their members are advocates of ‘non-violent direct action’.

Previously the group has had success in protecting parts of Newry State Forest from logging with an extended protest known as Camp Nuungu.

FOPC say the ‘Forest Bridge’ is the only piece of forest connecting Bongil Bongil on the coast to the Bindarri koalas in the hinterlands.

The group argues that the narrow corridor connects two areas of ‘intergenerational significance’ for the koala and will improve the species’ resilience to avoid extinction by 2050.

Members say the Forest Bridge is also vital for protecting many other threatened species who survived the Black Summer bushfires, including the squirrel glider, brush-tailed phascogale, Tiger quoll and yellow-bellied glider.

“The Friends of Pine Creek have been campaigning for many years and had successes with conserving parts of the forests,” said Tom Howell from BAN.

“However, protecting the Forest Bridge is crucial to link the escarpment to the coast so that koala populations can intermingle and stay genetically diverse.”

According to a spokesperson for the Forestry Corporation of NSW, “Forestry Corporation is in the planning stage for a harvest operation in a hardwood plantation area of Pine Creek State Forest.

“The operation is being planned in line with plantation regulations and every tree harvested will be replanted.

“The operation will produce timber for high quality sawlogs, poles, piles and girders for local Coffs Coast sawmills.”

A FOPC petition to protect the ‘Forest Bridge’ is nearing the 20,000 signatures needed to present it to the State Parliament at change.org/savepinecreek.

By Andrew VIVIAN