MEDIA RELEASE 7 February 2025

The Forestry Corporation has reduced yields from public native forests in NSW by 28%, though they are only doing so by dramatically reducing the volumes of products they previously claimed to have obtained in each of the past 3 years, according to the North East Forest Alliance.

The Forestry Corporation is legally required to prepare annual Biomaterial Reports that detail areas of native forests logged, and volumes of products obtained, on a compartment basis.

We welcome the Forestry Corporation admitting gross errors in their reporting of timber products by releasing revised Biomaterial Reports for the past 3 years, though we are flabbergasted that they have retrospectively reduced volumes by 28% from what they previously certified they obtained, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“For the past 3 years they have reclassified 65,584 m³ of premium large high quality logs as lower value small high quality logs, and reduced claimed yields of low quality logs by 616,384 tonnes (36%), NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

MEDIA RELEASE 13 January 2025

The Minns Government was elected on a promise to save Koalas and create the Great Koala National Park, but a new assessment by the North East Forest Alliance shows that in the 21 months since the election they have logged 7,185 ha of the park, 8.4% of the State Forests able to be logged, with new operations now starting.

“It is outrageous that despite their promise the Minns Government has accelerated logging of the Great Koala National Park, while rejecting repeated requests to implement a moratorium, phase-out strategy or protect core Koala habitat, report author Dailan Pugh said.

The report is here: ‘Accelerating Logging Within the Great Koala National Park’

MEDIA RELEASE 17 December 2024

The pressure is growing on the NSW Government to stop logging of public native forests since the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) identified that part of the problem is that the Forestry Corporation is not even covering the costs of cutting down the trees and delivering them to mills, leading IPART to highlight the growing costs to taxpayers when compared to alternative uses for native forests such as for tourism and carbon sequestration, and urging the Government to review the long-term feasibility of native timber harvesting.

“The Government needs to heed the advice of IPART that there are concerns about native forestry in NSW due to impacts on the environment and threatened species, climate change impacts and its economic viability, making it essential they review the long-term feasibility of native timber harvesting” NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

MEDIA RELEASE 14 December 2024

In response to the Forestry Corporation posting a loss of $29 million on its hardwood logging operations last year, almost double their loss of $15 million the previous year, the North East Forest Alliance is again calling for an immediate end to the logging of public native forests.

The logging of public native forests is an economic basket case, costing taxpayers a fortune to pay to degrade a public asset and drive numerous species towards extinction, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

MEDIA RELEASE 27 August 2024

The North East Forest Alliance is concerned that the NSW Government’s recently announced Independent Forestry Panel is not independent and is calling for the appointment of a forest ecologist to provide some balance.

The three member Independent Forestry Panel can not be considered independent when Peter Duncan AM was once the Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Corporation and Mick Veitch was previously the ALP’s shadow Forestry Minister, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“We would welcome a truly independent and impartial review of logging of public native forests in NSW as the evidence is that it is neither economically nor ecologically sustainable.

NEFA President Dailan Pugh OAM discusses the dire situation in Braemar State Forest.

Why should we prioritise the protection of State Forests if we want to save Koalas?

• On the north coast 215,000 ha (20%) of DPIE's high quality Koala habitat (KHSM classes 4&5) occurs on State Forests
• On the north coast 234,000 ha (24%) of the Commonwealth’s Nationally Important Koala Areas occur on State forests.
• It is in public ownership, so large areas can be easily and immediately protected.
• Occurs in a forest matrix relatively free of urban fragmentation impacts (ie domestic dogs and traffic).
• Large areas degraded by loss of preferred koala feed trees >30 cm diameter still has tree cover capable of relatively rapid restoration of habitat values (compared to new plantings)

TO HELP SAVE KOALAS FROM EXTINCTION IN THE WILD BY 2050, THE NSW GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO:

1. Protect State Forests where we know Koalas live

We can start with protecting Koala Hubs identified in 2017 by the Office of Environment and Heritage as "highly significant local scale areas of koala occupancy currently known for protection". Almost 20,000 ha (19%) of Koala Hubs occur on State forests… This government considered them so important that they belatedly protected 8,400 hectares of Koala Hubs in the proposed Great Koala National Park (GKNP) in September 2023, though they refused to protect the the 11,400ha of Koala Hubs on State Forests outside the GKNP, and continue to log them.

And other known areas of particular importance, such as Braemar State Forest. In 2019 NEFA identified outstanding densities of Koalas in a pre-logging survey, witnessed >70% killed in the October wildfires, put out water to aid the survivors as the drought continued, watched as most habitat was reoccupied, and then in 2023 took the Forestry Corporation to court try to stop the logging after Penny Sharpe refused to intervene. Now the continued existence of this population is at risk as over 70% of their preferred mature feed trees are being logged.

2. Require they look before they log to identify other Koala homes

If the Forestry Corporation happen to see a Koala when logging, they need to wait for it to flee before they can cut down its tree. The Forestry Corporation have proven time and time again that they can't identify Koalas in occupied habitat, so surveys must be independent.

3. Retain all preferred Koala feed tree species in potential habitat to facilitate recovery

MOST IMPORTANTLY, IF YOU WANT TO SAVE KOALA'S HOMES WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CREATE THE POLITICAL WILL. HERE ARE TWO THINGS YOU CAN DO:

Lobby Premier Chris Minns on his website, asking for him to stop logging Koalas' homes on State Forests, request a response.

Make a submission to The NSW Koala Strategy, by either:

• simply requesting koalas' homes on State Forests be protected from logging, by emailing [email protected]
  
• or taking a few minutes to fill out their online form dealing with issues in more detail, see NEFA's submission guide on save Koalas' homes.  

The NSW Government is reviewing its 2021 Koala Strategy, the thrust of which is to do nothing about protecting Koala homes on State Forests, and only protecting Koala homes on private land where the landowners want to sell or enter voluntarily conservation agreements. It’s open slather for those wanting to destroy Koala habitat. If you care about Koalas, please take a few minutes to make a submission to help save Koala’s homes.

MEDIA RELEASE 2 February 2024

The NSW Government’s decision to abandon the requirement to identify and establish logging exclusions around the homes of Southern Greater Gliders and other threatened hollow-dependent species is another blow to their survival.

This decision attempts to over-ride the current legal requirement to identify and protect 50m around den trees of Southern Greater Glider, Yellow-bellied Glider, Squirrel Glider and Brush-tailed Phascogale, along with nest trees for Masked, Sooty and Barking Owls, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“The homes of these hollow-dependent nocturnal species can only be identified in nocturnal searches.

“The political deal done between the EPA and the Forestry Corporation removes the need for nocturnal searches, instead requiring the retention of 4-6 additional mature trees per hectare in modelled greater glider habitat.

MEDIA RELEASE 29 September 2022

To mark Save the Koala Day (Friday 30 September), the North East Forest Alliance is appealing to the NSW Government to stop approving core Koala habitat for clearing and logging, if they have any genuine intent to stop Koalas becoming extinct in the wild by 2050.

The NSW Government’s spending of tens of millions on Koala hospitals, open range zoos and planting seedlings won’t stop Koalas becoming extinct in the wild unless they save and stabilise surviving Koalas by protecting their existing homes, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“Every day the NSW Government is allowing the Forestry Corporation to cut down mature Koala feed trees in public forests, and farmers to bulldoze them, while their propaganda arm goes into over-drive pretending that Koalas don’t need their feed trees.

MEDIA RELEASE 15 March 2022

The North East Forest Alliance is calling on Premier Dominic Perrottet to block the imminent 5 year extension of north coast Wood Supply Agreements because of the massive loss of resources in the 2019/20 fires, the increased need to protect fire refuges for affected Koalas, the need to restore hollow-bearing trees, and the urgency of protecting forests as carbon sinks to mitigate climate heating.

In the 2019/20 wildfires 49% of north-coast State Forests burnt causing the deaths of millions of trees and animals, yet contrary to their own evidence and advice the NSW Government is intending to continue cutting down trees and destroying animal’s homes as if nothing happened, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“In response to a question from Justin Field the Forestry Corporation revealed they are in the process of extending Wood Supply Agreements for north coast public forests, issued in 2003 for 20 years, unaltered for a further 5 years (1).

Following NEFA's finding last  Sunday of an exceptional Koala population in Braemar State Forest, south of Casino, NEFA is calling on the Premier to intervene to ensure that the required thorough searches for Koalas are undertaken and all Koala High Use Areas protected.

Koala scats were found under 42 trees in a 3ha area of Braemar State Forest marked up for logging, 81 Koala scats were found under this single tree where none had been found by the Forestry Corporation.