Councils and Public Native Forest Logging

Conservationists are buoyed by recent announcements indicating a strong mood for change within the community, to see an end to the logging of public native forests.

Earlier this year, a 21,000-signature petition was presented to the NSW government citing the unsustainable nature of native forest logging, both ecologically and economically, which has now been debated in parliament.

A large proportion of the state’s public forests, particularly along the east coast, lie in rugged and inaccessible country, which is why they were never developed for agriculture. It is that very ruggedness, and recent changes to logging rules, allowing more intense harvesting regimes, which is leading to land slippages and erosion. That in turn is causing a worrying decline in water quality.

The writing has been on the wall for some time, with the Victorian and Western Australian state governments already announcing an end to logging in their states, and now, local councils are calling on the NSW government to do likewise.

Eurobodalla Shire was the first to request an end to logging in state forests, with a just transition to 100% sustainable plantation forestry, followed earlier this month by the Bellingen Shire Council. Both councils identified logging as being incompatible with the district’s nature-based tourism industry, and the urgent need to combat climate change and protect rapidly declining biodiversity.

Shortly thereafter, the Clarence Valley Council’s Biodiversity Advisory Committee put forward a similar motion for Council’s consideration, adding that logging is incompatible with efforts to improve water quality across the valley, particularly in the region’s drinking water catchment. 

The impacts of the 2019-20 bushfires have been devastating, not only on isolated communities and wildlife, but also to the forests themselves. Some have suffered total ecological collapse, and subsequent research has shown that heavy logging of eucalypt forests has increased their flammability, thus adding to the bushfire threat.

At a federal level, the environment minister recently announced a goal of 30% of the Australian landmass under conservation. What more obvious solution to achieving that goal, than to dedicate all state forests as national parks?

John Edwards