The North East Forest Alliance says it’s outrageous that yesterday the Forestry Corporation began logging the homes of another source koala population in the proposed Richmond River Koala Parks.
‘Carwong State Forest has been recognised as a Nationally Important Koala Area, part of NSW’s Banyabba Area of Regional Koala Significance, and for protection as a Koala Hub,’ NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.
‘The 2019 fires killed most of this colony, and while it struggles to recover, now logging is removing most of their mature feed trees. Our requests to Janelle Saffin, as Minister for the North Coast, to intervene have been in vain, despite her Lismore branch supporting immediate protection of core koala habitat in the proposed Richmond River Koala Parks.’
Stop logging core koala habitat
‘We are calling on the public to contact Janelle and tell her to stop logging core koala habitat,’ said Mr Pugh.
‘In 2015 the EPA undertook extensive assessments of 4 state forests known to have important koala habitat, identifying Carwong State Forest as being the most important, with 80 per cent of the forest occupied by koalas.
‘In 2017 the NSW government identified 20,000 ha of Koala Hubs across NSW’s State Forests “to delineate highly significant local scale areas of koala occupancy currently known for protection”. There are 223 ha of Koala Hubs in Carwong State Forest. Now the Forestry Corporation are intending to log 177 ha of them.
‘Just for the proposed Great Koala National Park, in 2023 Minister, Penny Sharpe required all Koala Hubs be protected because they are “critical multi-generational resident koala populations and their habitats”.
‘She has refused our requests to protect them in the proposed Richmond River Koala Parks.
‘Regrettably, Carwong was all burnt in the 2019 wildfires, killing most koalas and many feed trees. We were pleased to find some koalas survived, and now they are halfway to recovery, so soon they can again function as a critical source colony for the long-term viability of the Richmond River Koala Parks.
‘The Forestry Corporation are intent on logging over 15,000 of the mature koala feed trees (>30 cm diameter) that survived, which will decimate this colony.
‘They are systematically logging their way through the best koala habitat in the proposed Richmond River Koala Parks, and by taking out the source colonies, jeopardising the future of the estimated population of 3,000 koalas,’ Mr Pugh said.
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