A Tweed Shire commercial fisher pleaded guilty last week to six offences in relation to illegal fishing activity.

Tyagarah residents are alarmed at what they believe to be Varroa mite infested hives in the nature reserve.

Northern NSW residents are being urged to play an active role in protecting their community against fire ants, by providing consent to allow treatment on their properties.

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’.