Aftermath of the Fires

[Black Orchid]

State MPs dismayed at NSW Forestry logging unburnt habitat after bushfires

Endangered species have lost up to 82% of their habitat but Environment Protection Authority says logging of unburnt forest is legal

The New South Wales Forestry Corporation has continued to log unburnt forest that is habitat for some of the most imperilled species in the aftermath of the state’s bushfire crisis.

Logging operations have continued in the Styx River state forest on the north coast that is now remnant habitat for endangered species including the greater glider and the Hastings River mouse.

Both the federal and state governments have identified the mouse, which had 82% of its habitat burnt, as one of the species most at risk of extinction as a result of the bushfire disaster.

Trucks have also moved into an area of the Lower Bucca state forest north-west of Coffs Harbour in bushland that is part of the proposed Great Koala national park.

Twenty-four per cent of koala habitat in eastern NSW was burnt in the fire crisis and the environment minister, Sussan Ley, has said up to 30% of the koala population on the mid north coast may have been killed.

Environment groups and the independent state MLC Justin Field have expressed dismay that NSW Forestry Corporation has been able to continue with harvest plans in unburnt forest that is now important remnant habitat for wildlife.

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW asked the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to investigate the logging. But the council’s chief executive said it was told that operations could not be halted when Forestry Corporation was not in breach of its approvals.

The council is now calling on the state government to suspend the coastal integrated forestry operations approval (IFOA) until assessments of the impact of the fires are complete.

“They’ve [Forestry Corporation] finished their operation in Styx River so my guess is whatever damage was going to be done has been done,” Gambian said.

“But it’s not too late to halt operations everywhere else in the state.”

[Black Orchid]

Cont'd.

Gambian said the government should offer an assistance package to the industry to support timber communities.

“We understand there are communities that rely on the timber industry for their survival,” he said. “This shouldn’t be a fight between the timber industry and koalas.”

Since the fire crisis, the forestry industry has pushed for more access to burnt areas of forest for logging.

But state politicians have been surprised to learn that logging of unburnt areas has continued as per harvesting plans.

In an estimates hearing last Friday, the Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann said Forestry Corporation had told an inquiry into the state’s koala populations “it was no longer logging unburnt forest while this assessment of the impact on threatened species was continuing”.

“Yet, in fact, in the Styx River state forest, they were continuing to log and the EPA realised that,” Faehrmann said.

She asked EPA officials whether the burning of more than 80% of the Hastings River mouse’s habitat had prompted them to suggest logging operations in remaining habitat should stop.

“Did that not trigger anything within the EPA to suggest to State Forests that it should stop logging those compartments where probably the last few little Hastings River mice, post-fire, were potentially living?” she asked.

Expert panel says 113 species need urgent attention after Australia's bushfires

Officials said they would respond on notice with the scientific advice they received.

But they said EPA ecologists had raised concerns about the impact of logging on species affected by fire.

“There were issues raised and concern raised about post-fire logging activity and the impact on species,” David Fowler of the EPA told the hearing.

The steering committee for the Great Koala national park met with the environment minister, Matt Kean, this week and asked him to investigate logging operations in the Lower Bucca state forest.

“We requested an immediate end to logging in unburnt forest on the north coast, particularly unburnt forest that is known koala habitat,” Ashley Love a member of the steering committee and the Bellingen Environment Centre said.

Love said the operations were in a significant patch of forest he described as “the largest unburnt remnant within the proposed Great Koala national park”.

The Bees Nest fire on the NSW north coast burnt large amounts of koala habitat to the west of the Lower Bucca.

Love said it meant the Lower Bucca was now potentially an important site for surviving populations that might later repopulate burnt areas when the bushland recovered.

Guardian Australia sought comment from the forestry minister, John Barilaro, and from Kean.

Response was provided via the NSW Forestry Corporation, which said 70% of its harvesting operations on the north coast had been moved into plantations.

A spokeswoman said there were “a small number of areas of unburnt forest still being harvested, maintaining sustainable timber supplies in demand for rebuilding and work in communities where employment in forestry and the timber industry is important”.

“There are strict regulations around forestry operations that were developed by expert scientific panels to ensure a high level of protection for wildlife during harvesting operations,” she said.

The spokeswoman said Forestry Corporation was also working with NSW government agencies, led by the EPA, to “develop appropriate conditions for harvesting timber from a small proportion of forests that are set aside for timber production and affected by fire”.

But the independent MP Justin Field said it was “unacceptable to the community that some of our last unburnt forests are being logged before the assessment of the impact of these fires has even been completed”.

“Forestry Corporation need to be called to account by the forestry minister and the environment minister. If the laws are allowing this to happen then the laws need to change.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -bushfires

This needs to stop. Bail out the loggers but we lost over 3 billion animals during the bush fires and we cannot allow more of our species to become extinct.

We have MPs on the north coast pushing for more clearing and development to line their own pockets and now this.

[Texan]

Can there be no compromise? How about for every tree cut down, the logging company must plant 3 trees to replace it. I know that it won't help in the immediate short term, but it will in the long term. Make it 4 trees? At some point, you have to allow free enterprise, at least on their own land. Make them plant 2 trees in the burnt forest and replace the tree on their tree farms for every tree cut down. Australia will get the benefit of industry and private industry will restore the forests. Win-win!

[Black Orchid]

There are more than 900 Eucalypt species in Australia and Koalas only eat about 40 of them. The Eucalypts they live on only grow in pockets in certain areas and many of these pockets have already been decimated due to development.

Logging is a messy business. When I lived up on the north coast the main forest roads, where the dignitaries were taken, were pristine but walk 20 metres off the forest road and the decimation was unbelievable.

The Koala habitat up there was destroyed with no forethought to retaining workable green corridors and what was left of the poor colonies were either diseased, savaged by dogs or drowned in people's swimming pools.

I'm a bit of an environmentalist at heart and there needs to be a compromise. Having lived in these areas I find it heartbreaking that the only way we may see these beautiful animals in the future will be in a zoo or a specialised park.

[Juliar]

Ban the Greenies who caused the horrific bushfires because they banned the clearing of the dangerous undergrowth.

[Black Orchid]

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned John Barilaro she will boot Nationals ministers out of her cabinet tomorrow, if they do not scrap their plan to sit on the crossbench.

On a dramatic day at Macquarie Street, NSW's Coalition Government disintegrated in the space of a few hours amid an escalating spat between the Liberals and Nationals over koala policy.

Mr Barilaro, the Deputy Premier and Nationals leader, said his party would no longer support Government legislation in Parliament and would effectively sit on the crossbench.

However, he said Nationals ministers would not surrender their portfolios.

In a statement, Ms Berejiklian rejected that idea and set a deadline of 9.00am tomorrow for them to backtrack on their plan.

She said they must choose between being ministers and sitting on the crossbench.

"They cannot do both," she said.

"If required, I will attend Government House tomorrow and swear in a new Ministry."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-10/ ... e/12648966

I'm with Gladys on this!

[Black Orchid]

Property developer complained to John Barilaro about NSW koala protection policy.

The only complaint John Barilaro has raised with the New South Wales planning minister about the state’s new koala protection laws is from a Newcastle property developer with multiple residential developments on the edges of towns including Maitland, Lismore and Armidale.

Jeff McCloy, one of the Hunter region’s most prominent developers, told the Guardian he contacted Barilaro when the National party leader and deputy premier spoke out about the koala state environmental planning policy. He then sent Barilaro a lengthy briefing note he had written in May about it.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... ion-policy

Barilaro needs to go. Another self serving pollie trying to line his own pockets.