The management of Forests NSW has hit back at activists that claim it has been neglecting its duty of care to koalas in a north-coast state forest.
North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh told Echonetdaily on Monday that a weekend inspection of logging areas in Royal Camp State Forest, 16km southwest of Casino, revealed logging was ‘underway in one koala high-use area, about to enter another and proposed for two more’.
The following day Forests NSW reported that it had suspended harvesting while it undertook further surveys.
Dean Carney, planning manager for Forests NSW, told ABC radio this morning that staff ‘do a job that’s very complicated in balancing timber production and environmental values but we do it within the rules that the EPA set’.
‘We do believe in what we do and we’re confident that what we put in place is good for the timber industry and good for koalas,’ he said.
