16 November 2018
Logging laws will destroy thousands of hectares of some of the world’s most diverse forests
New logging laws released by the NSW Government today will destroy large areas of publicly owned native forests and make them unfit for native species, according to the NSW National Parks Association, NSW Nature Conservation Council and leading scientists[i].
“The new logging laws released by the Berejiklian government today will destroy large areas of publicly owned native forests and quickly render them unfit for native species,” NSW Nature Conservation Council CEO Kate Smolski said.
“These measures will trash many of the last refuges on earth for an astonishing array of species. Premier Gladys Berejiklian has effectively signed a death warrant for thousands of forest-dwelling animals like koalas, quolls and owls.”
The new Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals will:
- Increase logging intensity throughout public native forests, including legalising[ii] high-intensity clearfell logging in 140,000ha of forests between Taree and Grafton, enabling clear-felling of areas up to 45ha in one go. This will convert biologically complex, natural forests into monocultures and destroy 43% of the mapped high-quality koala habitat on state forests.
- Open previously protected old-growth forest to logging by ‘remapping and rezoning’ these high-conservation-value areas. Old-growth forests are rare, harbour the last big old trees and provide vital refuges for threatened species, including large owls and gliders.
- Remove the requirement to look for koalas before logging on the North Coast and implement utterly inadequate tree retention rates practically guaranteeing koalas will die in logging operations and hastening their slide towards extinction.
- Allow the logging of giant trees up to 160cm diameter (five metres circumference) so the big trees made available from reduced stream buffers and rezoned old growth can be exploited.
NSW National Parks Association CEO Alix Goodwin said: “The government has made the astonishing choice to implement an intensive harvesting zone that will kill koalas and destroy their habitat, rather than create the Great Koala National Park[iii] that would protect their habitat and allow their numbers to recover. That choice will not be forgotten easily.
“Little wonder a comprehensive community survey, leaked to the press this week[iv], showed strong public opposition to native forest logging throughout Australia.
“An industry that is clearfelling koala and glider habitat and wants access to protected forests is an industry nobody wants or needs.”
References
[i]See comments from Brian Tolhurst (EPA) and NPWS in the Threatened Species Expert Panel Review: https://engage.environment.nsw.gov.au/29948/documents/77095
[ii]So-called ‘Heavy Single Tree Selection’ (Heavy STS) has been practised by Forestry Corporation since 2010 outside the scope of the previous laws. The new laws legalise this practice as a result of the Natural Resources Commission’s acceptance of Heavy STS as a legitimate logging technique.
[iii]There is significant overlap between the intensive harvesting zone and the Great Koala National Park. Find out more on the GKNP here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3sKmVn4kYOBbFhzS1J3NnhyNVE/view
[iv]SMH: Bush turns its back on native forest logging: https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/bush-turns-its-back-on-support-for-logging-native-forests-20181113-p50frc.html
Tags
Forests and wildlife
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