15/07/2011

Following the Commonwealth government’s Climate Action Package and announcement that there will be an end to native forest logging, conservationists are calling for a moratorium on all native forest logging operations on public land. Conservationists and community members have conducted a walk in Bodalla State Forest Cpt 3043 and the logging has ceased.

Bodalla State Forest is in the foothills of the iconic and significant Gulaga Mountain, south of Narooma. The conservation group South East Forest Rescue today found more illegal logging in Cpt 3043. As well as the compartment being scantily marked there is evidence of logging in rainforest.

“These contractors are repeat offenders,” said Ms Stone. “In Dampier State Forest, Nerigundah, where these contractors were previously, we found debris deliberately and carelessly pushed against habitat trees putting these trees at risk of fire.”

“The Office of Environment and Heritage upheld these breaches,” said Ms Stone. “Old-growth forest, ecologically mature forest, was logged. Clear felled hillsides are not any form of environmental protection. There is now serious adverse impacts to the many threatened species of the area, and the water catchment.”

This company, Kasun Logging Pty Ltd, received an exit assistance package from the Commonwealth Government of $825 000 in January of this year to exit native forest logging in Tasmania, the loggers have been logging in the NSW State forests on the south coast since January 2010, they changed the address of the company to New South Wales in February 2011.

To allow this Tasmanian contractor in the highly sensitive area of Gulalga Mountain seems contrary to all protocol Forests NSW state they follow, particularly as the contractor has stated that they have not read the Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals, which is the licence conditions and rules they must follow.

This compartment is home to Glossy Black Cockatoos, Masked and Sooty Owls, Yellow-bellied Gliders. Around the compartment there are records of Golden tipped Bats, Powerful Owls, Swift Parrots, Turquoise Parrots, Square-tailed Kites, Long-nosed Potoroos, Sugar Gliders and a koala record within 5 kms of the compartment.

The breaches in the Bodalla State Forest compartment that the conservationists have found include next to no marking up of habitat trees, hollow-bearing trees felled and debris around the base of retained trees. It seems that the contractors are burning as they go.

“The public no longer trust Forests NSW to guarantee that there will be no negligible impact on the environment, and carbon storage capacity, by the logging of our native forests,” said Ms Stone.

“We have put Forests NSW and their authorised contractors on notice that native forest logging on public land will not be tolerated by the community,” said Ms Stone. “This is the International Year of the Forests yet hundreds of hectares of habitat are being destroyed each week and, unlike the public, Forests NSW do not even have to do a species impact statement,” said Ms Stone.

“We reported the breaches in this compartment to the Office of Environment and Heritage,” said Ms Stone. “We stated then that the probability of further breaches in this compartment would be high if harvesting continues.”

“We have called on the Federal Minister for the Environment to take action.”

“We’re calling on the NSW Minister for Environment and Heritage, Robyn Parker to put into place procedure for enacting the Commonwealth’s plan,” she said. “Verbal and written warnings have been ineffective in rectifying behaviour nor equal to the degree of environmental damage being inflicted upon threatened species habitat.”

“We’re also calling upon the Minister for Forests, Katrina Hodgkinson, to step up and support the people of NSW.”

“The amount of breaches uncovered this month show that Forests NSW are not adhering to their laws,” said Ms Stone. “The time has come to end native forest logging on public land altogether.”

The Office of Environment and Heritage is investigating.

South East Forest Rescue
‘Stoppin the Choppin’
PO Box 899 MORUYA NSW 2537

www.myspace.com/southeastforestrescue
http://www.lisaandtony.com.au/South%20East%20Forest%20Rescue%20home.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/southeastforestrescue
South East Forest Rescue