THE Friends of Orara East are organising themselves into an action group that will stand up for the protection of wildlife and flora in their neighbouring native forests.

The group of around 60 residents, mainly living in Upper Orara, Dairyville, Coramba and Nana Glen, in and around the Orara East forest catchment, gathered on Thursday 2 March at Upper Orara Public Hall to plan a community response to the public forests under imminent threat of industrial logging in the Orara Valley.

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“The native forests scheduled for logging were only just spared from the Liberation Trail bushfire in 2019/2020 that burnt through the majority of the Nymboida River catchment,” group spokesperson Zianna Fuad told News Of The Area.

“These forests are now a critically important, unburnt refuge that is now being massively impacted by large logging machines.”

The major concern is the impact of habitat loss on threatened species and resident koalas.

“Dwindling koala habitat through bushfires and logging has pushed Australia’s national icon to serious risk of future extinction.

“Ecologists also warn that the extensive soil disturbance and destruction of ground vegetation through logging operations will dry these forest areas making them more fire prone,” she said.

On the night there were speeches via live video from Susie Russell and Amanda who are from Elands, a community similarly opposing Forestry Corporation’s logging with a growing camp to protect Bulga State Forest.

They talked about the importance of local action that links with the state-wide push to end logging in native forest.

“It is a movement that is on the rise as the science becomes impossible to ignore,” said Zianna.

The locals have been protesting for months on the side of the road, doing citizen science and getting media attention but are feeling an urgency to go harder.

“We have heard from mountain biking groups, walking groups and many people who use these forests recreationally that they will be joining forces with us too, to take action on what’s left of these irreplaceable native forests.

“It’s clear this is only the beginning,” said Zianna.

Coramba residents Hendrik and Catherine Bindels attended the meeting to show their concern at what appears, for them, to be the speed and recklessness of the destruction of native forests inland of Coffs Harbour by Forestry Corporation NSW.

“In our area, surrounding the Bagawa State Forest and the Liberation Trail near Nana Glen, the forests were just recovering from one of the worst bushfires we had seen in the 40 years we have lived here,” the Bindels told NOTA.

“These fires swept through in the summer of 2019-2020 destroying forests and animal habitats at an alarming rate.

“It defies logic that these forests are being logged at this time when recovery is in progress.

“With the trees taken away, and the ground exposed to the elements, erosion will occur, washing the sediment into the river and stream systems and clogging up the water flow.

“We have endangered species in this area, platypus, koalas and ground dwelling marsupials and birds who use the hollows in old growth trees as nesting habitats.”

The couple has recently walked through a nearby forest where there had been previous logging and found that the area has now been taken over by lantana and other noxious weeds.

“Erosion has already taken place there and further exacerbated every time it rains,” they said.

What drives this couple to action is that after numerous requests by individuals and communities to Forestry Corp NSW to address these issues, the logging continues and it appears that little progress has been made in addressing the concerns of the people who live and work in this area.

“It is disappointing that the Environmental Protection Agency appears to be ignoring the sensitivity of this area.

“We intend to continue to lobby against this logging of our area and join with the community in our attempts to hold the government agencies to task.

“With a state election looming, there will be more scrutiny required to find who will listen to our concerns.

“As this area has been touted as part of the Great Koala National Park, it would be of utmost importance to have an environment in which the koala and other native species, fauna and flora, can be present.”

Present at the meeting was local environmentalist Ashley Love.

“The Orara East State Forest currently being intensively logged or clear felled was a major corridor for the distribution of koalas to the Coffs coastal areas and its disruption could jeopardise the continued flow of koalas to supplement the three more coastal sub-populations to the east; in Coffs Harbour Toormina-Korora, Coffs Northern Beaches and the Lower Bucca–Orara East, each of which had an estimated population of more than 50 koalas.”

By Andrea FERRARI