Making Scats Count in Braemar
Ongoing citizen science works at Braemar shows that the Koala population there is one of the most significant identified in a State Forest.
Our surveys have so far identified 134 trees with Koala scats beneath them, including 53 high use trees. Until recently the requirement was to undertake intensive surveys within 100m of high use
trees to delineate high use areas to exclude from logging. We have identified 56ha of potential Koala High Use Areas and expect over 100ha to be present. This is the most extensive area found on State Forests.
Braemar encompasses core breeding habitat that is part of the nationally significant Koala population previously identified across the nearby Carwong and Royal Camp State Forests. The logging area is likely to support 60-90 Koalas, which represents an important source area for this population.
You can read the latest report on the surveys here.
Trees formerly marked for retention have been re-marked as available for logging. Under this one a large number of koala scats were found. Another tree that had been re-marked had scats from a mother and baby koala.
Braemar Supplementary Audit 1
To read the Supplementary Audit report click here.
On 28 July NEFA located part of a nationally significant Koala population in part of Braemar State Forest scheduled for logging this month. It is part of a larger population that NEFA had previously identified in Royal Camp and Carwong State Forests in 2012 and 2013, which, at the then Environment Minister's request, had been verified by the EPA as being of national significance.
NEFA identified part of an extensive Koala High Use Area (HUA) marked-up for logging. The harvesting plan, and marking-up, showed it was going to be logged under the old IFOA logging rules which required the identification and protection of Koala HUAs. Our appeal to Premier Gladys Berejiklian to intervene to protect Braemar's Koalas was in vain.
Far from identifying and protecting Koala HUAs the Government now intends to log it under Premier Berejiklian's new Coastal IFOA logging rules, which remove the protection for Koala HUAs and require that nothing specifically be done to mitigate impacts on Koalas in this area.
NEFA returned on 8 August to further assess the distribution of Koalas in the proposed logging area, identifying that the Koala HUA likely extends over 24 hectares, that other Koala HUAs are likely to be present, and that outside Koala HUAs Koalas are widespread but limited by the low numbers and diversity of feed trees due to previous logging.
It is not acceptable for the Forestry Corporation to be allowed to rampage through a nationally significant Koala population. As his predecessor did, the Environment Minister Matt Kean must intervene to ensure Braemar's Koalas are fully assessed and adequately protected.
To read the Supplementary Audit report click here.
Braemar audit
A NEFA inspection of compartments 23 and 24 of Braemar State Forest on Sunday 28 July
located an extensive Koala High Use Area in an area marked up for imminent logging by the
Forestry Corporation. There is no evidence of the required thorough searches for Koalas
scats having been undertaken. It is clear that the Forestry Corporation are once again
intending to log important Koala habitat in blatant contravention of their Threatened Species
Licence.
Read the audit report here
81 Koala scats were found under this single tree where none had been found by the Forestry Corporation
Supplementary Audit of Gibberagee State Forest Compartment 104
Supplementary Audit of Gibberagee State Forest Compartment 104
Dailan Pugh, 25 February 2019.
This report is supplementary to NEFA's 'Preliminary Audit of Gibberagee SF Compartments 104, 105, and 106' which was provided to the Minister for the Environment and the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) on 12 February 2019, along with a request to stop the illegal logging continuing. The legal breaches are detailed in that report.
Seasoned forest protectors assist Dailan Pugh OAM with Gibberagee State Fores audit.
You can read the full audit here: Supplementary Audit of Gibberagee State Forest Compartment 104
Gibberagee State Forest
Preliminary Audit of Gibberagee SF
Compartments 104, 105, and 106
Dailan Pugh, February 2019, North East Forest Alliance
The North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) have been undertaking systematic audits of Forestry Corporation logging operations over the past decade. Over that time we have identified hundreds of breaches of the Forestry Corporation's Threatened Species Licence, Environment Protection Licence and Fisheries Licence, with most of those investigated confirmed by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) or Fisheries NSW.
You can read the full audit report here: Preliminary Audit of Gibberagee SF Compartments 104, 105, and 106
For Whom the Bell Miners Toll
Read the NEFA Report: For Whom the Bell Miners Toll
This report looks at the issue of the Key Threatening Process „Bell Miner Associated Dieback‟ (BMAD). This dieback has affected hundreds of thousands of hectares of NSW‟s forests from the Queensland border to the Victorian border. Millions of hectares of NSW‟s native forests are considered susceptible to this threat.
Donaldson State Forest Initial Assessment
The North East Forest Alliance undertook a brief inspection of compartments 36 and 42, and other forests in the vicinity of Border Road, in Donaldson State Forest on 11 May 2014.
The Report can be read here.
As a result of this inspection the following recommendations are made:
Trashing EECs in Cherry Tree SF
Forest Corp(se) have been trashing Endangered Ecological Communities in Cherry Tree State Forest.
You can read the latest NEFA audit report here
This is a serious breach of the National Parks and Wildlife Act. The Environmental Defenders Office, have agreed to represent NEFA in this matter and have sent this letter to the Minister calling on her to enforce the law.
This is our latest investigation in Cherry Tree State Forest, you can find some of our earlier audit reports by scrolling down this page.
The picture doesn't change. Forest Corp break the law, we tell the Government/EPA, they do nothing, Forest Corp keep breaking the law.
Gladstone SF -Preliminary Audit Report
Gladstone State Forest is being smashed. A preliminary audit revealed the usual breaches..
Habitat trees logged, damaged, surrounded by debris or undersize.
Also-
Streams polluted.
Koala habitat not identified and not protected.
Gibberagee Preliminary Audit
The Preliminary audit report can be downloaded here. (Warning 9MB file)
Dailan Pugh's report on trashing the habitat of the endangered Purple-spotted Gudgeon, can be found here
Purple-spotted Gudgeon. Photo Dailan Pugh