By Nonee Walsh
Posted Fri Oct 16, 2009
Internal government documents show the Federal Government backed away from acting against illegal red gum logging along the Murray River in south-west New South Wales five months ago ...
Discuss ...Documents obtained under freedom of information (FOI) laws reveal a series of tense negotiations between the federal Environment Department and Forests New South Wales, after red gum logging was found to be prohibited under federal law.
The National Parks Association (NPA) wrote to the federal Environment Department in mid-2008 alleging that an intensive type of logging in the Riverina was illegal because it required federal approval.
The forests include wetlands listed under the international Ramsar Convention and the NPA argued that the habitat of federally-listed endangered species was at risk.
On May 1, a letter from the federal Environment Department said the logging method, Australian Group Selection, was prohibited until it had the approval of the federal Environment Minister.
It told Forests New South Wales the logging had to stop in the Murray-Mildura area, and all logging had to stop in the Ramsar-listed wetlands by May 31.
NPA spokeswoman Carmel Flint says it has taken the FOI application for the group to find that its complaint was upheld.
"These letters confirm the Commonwealth Government reached the conclusion that logging in red gum wetlands was having a significant environmental impact on matters of national environmental significance," she said ...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... 716174.htm
