History Repeated

A recent media release by the North-east Forest Alliance (NEFA), with the heading, “Time to stop Logging Koalas to Extinction” brings a sense of déja-vu to many.

In the 1990s, following years of forest conflict between conservationists and the then Forestry Commission over the logging of high conservation value forests, the NSW government decided to act. Extensive flora and fauna surveys were conducted along with mapping to identify areas of old-growth, and rainforest that would be protected under proposed new Regional Forests Agreements.

However, immediately prior to the signing of those historic agreements in 1999 and 2000, the Forestry Commission targeted large areas of that old-growth forest, particularly in remote areas such as Clouds Creek.

Fast forward 25 years, and with the protection of koalas high on everyone’s agenda, and a new government promising to install the Great Koala National Park, it’s on again with Forestry Corporation’s contractors frantically logging as much of the forest lying within the boundaries of the proposed park as possible.

In our own Northern Rivers region, the action sparking NEFA’s media release is happening right now in Braemar State Forest, 20km south of Casino. That forest was initially scheduled for October 2019, about the time the Black Summer bushfires erupted, and in July that year, volunteers undertook detailed koala searches there, finding large numbers of scats and high use areas across the entire forest.

Having previously also found healthy koala populations at Royal Camp, Crystal Creek, and other nearby state forests, NEFA had been lobbying for the local Sandy Creek Koala Park. However, on 8 October 2019, the Busby’s Flat fire burnt most of those forests eliminating Koalas from all but the less intensively burnt areas.

The record drought at the time persisted into early 2020 and subsequent surveys by NEFA volunteers found that most of the koalas had been lost, but that some had survived in those less intensively burnt areas, including parts of Braemar.

With the possibility of the koala population recovering, if left alone the decision to log those very refuges was madness.

John Edwards