MEDIA RELEASE 9 June 2026

NEFA has found the nationally Endangered Kate’s Leaf-tailed Gecko within a logging area in Mount Belmore State Forest (on the Richmond Range south west of Casino). This discovery legally requires that the Forestry Corporation must immediately stop forestry operations until the EPA identify how it is to be protected.

Kate’s Leaf-tailed Gecko is restricted to the southern Richmond Range, one of the variety of endemic species found in the proposed Richmond River Koala Parks. Its entire extent was burnt in the 2019/20 wildfires, with over half the population estimated to have been killed, resulting in its being listed as Endangered under national legislation in September 2023 and under State legislation in August 2024.

Despite the listing of Kate’s Leaf-tailed Gecko as Endangered the Forestry Corporation have ignored its existence and continued to road and log its habitat because legally they are not required to do anything until it is found within 100 metres of their forestry operation, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

MEDIA RELEASE 8 May 2026

The Stakeholder Consultation Report for NSW’s Forestry Industry Action Plan (FIAP) raises more questions than it answers, though with 70% of submissions expressing support for ending native forestry it confirms that most people want an end to this archaic and destructive industry.

The Stakeholder Consultation Report by the Independent Forestry Panel was intended to summarise community attitudes towards public native forestry as an input to the NSW Forestry Industry Action Plan (FIAP). (1)

“This report demonstrates that a logging industry review is not appropriate for deciding whether we end logging of public native forests and instead protect them for wildlife, carbon sequestration, recreation, tourism and water”, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

MEDIA RELEASE 11 December 2025

In her media release of 11 December 2025 Environment Minister Penny Sharpe states

The NSW Government has completed its first comprehensive statewide koala survey, providing the most accurate picture to date of where koalas live and how populations are distributed across the state.

…

Populations in NSW continue to face significant risks, including habitat loss and fragmentation, climate impacts, disease and vehicle strikes. These threats are expected to intensify over coming decades, underscoring the importance of protecting key habitat and wildlife corridors.

Now that the NSW Government has undertaken new modelling that identifies key koala habitat, they need to stop logging it and ensure it is protected from clearing, according to North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

Logged preferred Koala feed trees in key koala habitat in Braemar SF

MEDIA RELEASE 27 February 2025

The loggers are once again spreading false information in their attempts to stop the Great Koala National Park (GKNP), this time by claiming that the assessment of Koalas was based upon Koala scat searches when they know it was based upon comprehensive drone surveys that identified actual Koalas.

For the GKNP repeated night time drone surveys were undertaken using infrared at 169 59ha sites to identify individual Koalas, involving 4,000 kms of drone flight by a team of 26 drone pilots.

The results of this unprecedented survey intensity were extrapolated to map the density of Koalas across the GKNP, identifying a total population of 12,000 Koalas, NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

The North East Forest Alliance accuses the AWU of unfounded scaremongering with their claims of 9,000 job losses if the Great Koala National Park is created, as NEFA’s assessment identifies only 118 to 218 industry jobs in north east NSW will be directly affected by creation of the park.

See NEFA’s The Impact of the Creation of the Great Koala National Park on Logging Industry Employment in North East NSW for details

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 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.

MEDIA RELEASE 7 August 2024

Pugh’s Frog (Philoria pughi) has recently been uplisted to nationally Endangered, with logging identified as a threat, leading the North East Forest Alliance to call upon the NSW and Commonwealth Environment Ministers to immediately change the logging rules to protect its habitat from logging.

Pugh's Frog (Credit Stephen Mahony)