In a last ditch appeal the Bellingen Environment Centre (BEC) has written to the director of Forestry Corporation and a number of NSW government ministers, to alter the imminent clear felling operation at compartment 16 Mailman’s Track, to that of selective logging.
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BEC believe that modifying the harvesting from clear felling to that of selective logging may save the habits for an estimated six koalas.
In a statement released by the BEC, there was particular concern given to the fate of ‘Postie’, a koala sighted regularly over the last month in compartment 16, which appears to have a facial injury. “Postie’s habitat should be identified and fully protected from logging until the condition and future welfare of the animal is fully assessed.”
The BEC claim there is now little dispute that it was a major environmental and financial mistake in the 1960s to convert the magnificent native forests of Pine Creek State Forest to flooded gum plantations, as much “valuable koala habitat was destroyed at the time and the plantations have produced predominantly low value products of pulp wood and pallet timber.
“The NSW Forestry Corporation are now proposing to add insult to the original mistake by clear felling again in the almost 50 year old plantations.
“The plantations now contain a mixture of regrowth of high value koala food trees and regenerating rainforest which will be completely destroyed throughout most of the compartment by clear felling. This is nothing more than a re-run of the destructive forest clear felling of 50 years ago,” asserted the BEC.
As a compromise, the BEC has suggested selective harvesting an estimated 25 per cent of high value timber products. This would then see many koala food trees retained and quicken the regeneration of rainforest components. Moreover, “this would all occur after the welfare of ‘Postie’ was ensured.”