Clouds Creek State Forest within the Great Koala National Park area has been closed since 3 March 2023 due to fire damage and severe weather but logging operations have been underway for the past few months and are currently underway in some of the most ecologically significant compartments despite no ecological surveys being undertaken since 2017. The lack of updated surveys means that only species recorded in the forest more than 6 years ago and before the black summer fires are considered during the planning stages of the logging.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the Environment Sue Higginson said "This morning I visited logging areas within the Great Koala National Park and was deeply disturbed by what I saw - industrial scale heavy machinery knocking down threatened species habitat, tearing up the steep slopes and recovering forests, and all at a cost to the NSW community,"
"It's actually shocking that there is currently no requirement to conduct ecological surveys in our native forests prior to the commencement of logging. Only threatened species that were recorded several years ago are considered in logging operations which completely fails to account for species movement and impacts from bushfires and floods. No other proponent in NSW can operate like this"
"The recent move by the Environment Protection Authority to temporarily order a halt to logging operations in Tallaganda State Forest was due to the required species survey of Southern Greater Gliders being inadequate. The mounting evidence, that even the cursory surveys for known species in logging areas are not being undertaken, is a clear indication of the failed regulation and compliance of native forest logging,"
"Today, I'll be calling on the EPA to issue a stop work order for Clouds Creek State Forest. The likely presence of hollow bearing trees in Clouds Creek, that are critical habitat for threatened Greater Gliders, has not been assessed in the harvest plan. Trees that have been felled in this area have more than likely been den trees and killed Greater Gliders,"
"The NSW Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Agriculture should immediately require pre-logging ecological surveys to be conducted to ensure that threatened species are being protected from industrial logging. Allowing currently planned logging to commence and underway logging to continue, under out of date surveys, is irresponsible and at complete odds with the Government's commitment for no new extinctions,"
"The potential for more threatened species to be present in any given forest after the last 6 years of fires and floods is very high and critical habitat is being overlooked by the Forestry Corporation already,"
"I am also calling on the Minister for Agriculture to fully implement the Post Bushfire Logging Review conducted by the Natural Resources Commission to ensure that recovery in native forests is allowed to continue without further industrial logging in fragile areas,"
"We need to end public native forest logging in NSW, that's the reality. As long as the Government delays this reality there should be tighter controls on the protection of threatened species and at a minimum this requires up to date pre logging surveys be undertaken and the Forestry Corporation be immediately required to operate like every other proponent in NSW that is having an impact upon threatened species."
Link to images & video - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vuNKkq5gyu5EOW9K2OBmqu3gCoRNzRnk?usp=drive_link
