ROW OVER MASSIVE CLEAR-FELL ‘TRIALS’ CONTINUES
 
Assurances by NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) that ‘all is well’ in the region’s native forests have been rejected, as “not believable, nor based on reality”, North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) spokesperson Mr John Corkill, said today.     The comments are the latest in a major public dispute over the EPA’s support for proposed logging “trials” at massively increased levels of intensity.

A promise to return ‘third party’ legal rights, to allow “any person” to enforce the logging industry’s compliance with environmental laws, made by NSW Labor Leader Luke Foley today, has been welcomed by the North East Forest Alliance, as ‘a necessary measure’, due to what NEFA says is a major breakdown in the regulation of logging in publicly owned native forests in north east NSW.
 
“In the interests of better forest management we urge Premier Baird to match this promise. The NSW Forestry Corporation has repeatedly broken the rules governing logging, designed to protect streams, soils and threatened species, while the NSW Environment Protection Authority has ‘turned a blind eye’. Allowing independent enforcement is the only way to restore integrity to the system of environmental protection,” North East Forest Alliance spokesperson, John Corkill said today.