Until recently many people who knew little about bees apart from the fact that they make honey, had not heard of Varroa destructor, more commonly known as the varroa mite.

Following the confirmation of tick fever in cattle on two properties in the Tweed area, North Coast Local Land Services and NSW Department of Primary Industries are reminding producers to be alert to the risk and practice good farm biosecurity.

The North East Forest Alliance has hit out at calls from the Department of Primary Industries for up to 18,000 North Coast farmers to consider logging their properties, saying it is ‘targeting the best koala habitat left on private land for intensified logging'.

Following the declaration last week by a NSW Department of Primary Industries official that contractors would not attend shark nets at Ballina to release an entangled ray, Sea Shepherd Australia and Humane Society International claim the department could be in breach of its own management plans. 

A controversial plan to burn harvested sections of North Coast native forests to generate so-called ‘renewable’ electricity has been widely derided by the Greens and environment groups.

Shark nets will again be ‘trialled’ at five north coast beaches this coming summer despite their largely ineffectual impact on the predators last season and widespread community concern about so-called ‘bycatch’.

The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) says it is in the process of removing shark nets from north coast waters almost two weeks early as migrating whales have already been spotted along the NSW coast as far north as Kingscliff.

Groundwater located within Byron Shire is among 42 additional sources identified across NSW that will be opened up for new extraction licences. Job creation and economic growth appear to be the driver, yet the DPI fails to mention any environmental safeguards, oversight or potential impacts.