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)

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 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.

With Pugh’s Frog (Philoria pughi) about to be listed as nationally Endangered, the North East Forest Alliance is calling on Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to change the Regional Forest Agreement to protect its habitat from logging.

Pugh’s Frog inhabits soaks and seepages in the highest headwaters of streams on the Gibraltar Range and in the Timbarra and Girard areas, during the breeding season it constructs nests in mud under leaf litter where it raises its young watered by seepage. They live a sedentary life, outside the breeding season they will forage amongst leaf litter, mostly within a hundred metres of their nests.

“It is an old endemic, tracing its lineage back over 50 million years to the Gondwana super continent, though a few million years ago the Philoria genus became increasingly marooned on isolated mountain top islands, where they evolved into distinct species” NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

Photo: Stephen Mahony