Though the proposed trial is still in the initial stages of development and there will be opportunity for the community to provide input before any work takes place, the Nature Conservation Council’s CEO Kate Smolski along with the Bellingen Environment Centre’s (BEC) Caroline Joseph, have jumped the gun and called on the NSW Government to abandon the project, contending logging slopes of over 30 degrees had been abandoned years ago and should not be allowed to return.

“In the Upper Bellinger Valley, 80,000 tonnes of soil washed into the river during a single logging operation on steep slopes in the early 1990s,” Ms Smolski said.

 “As a result of the community outcry and a damning Land and Environment Court judgment, State Forests were subsequently required to prepare environmental impact statements before logging, and steep lands were effectively removed from forestry operations.

 “Now, quite incredibly, the Forestry Corporation is preparing to pillage steeply sloping forests in this region once again, this time a controversial and costly technique called cable logging.”

Ms Joseph supports and furthers Ms Smolski assertions by drawing attention to recent local logging projects.

“The Bellingen Environment Centre (BEC) is gravely concerned about the ‘Removal of the Steep Slopes Rule’ and a proposed cable logging trial in the Bellingen area,” Ms Joseph said.

“Bellingen residents are well aware that 52 per cent of the shire is covered by forest and have witnessed the massive loss of habitat caused through the most recent upgrade to the Pacific Highway between Urunga and Connells Creek.

“Rural communities have lost faith in the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to monitor and regulate serious breaches in North Coast Forests.”

Ms Joseph said the consequences of logging operations in the early 1990s continue to cause gravel movements along the length of the Bellinger River, resulting in a wider and shallower waterway and that whatever the method of tree removal, the end result for the local river system was the same.

“During frequent and serious flood events in the Bellinger Valley, known for its high rainfall, infrastructure like bridges and roads, are put further at risk of damage through siltation and continuing erosion of the river,” Ms Joseph.

“It has been suggested that the method of logging proposed is different to that method which was used previously, however, BEC points out that the end result of clear felling of vegetation, especially canopy vegetation on steep slopes, will create the same outcome - rocks and gravel loss on slopes above 25 degrees.”

Ms Smolski told the Courier-Sun environmental concerns from green groups did not just include the valley’s terrain but that logging could impact on forest-dependent fauna, many of them threatened species, including powerful owls and yellow-bellied gliders.

“These areas are currently in good condition, with lots of mature trees that contain hollows that are essential as nesting sites for many species,” Ms Smolski said.

“The region’s struggling koala population, which is under intense pressure from habitat fragmentation, disease, and inbreeding, would be further threatened by this proposal. Sightings and other records show koalas use these steeply sloping forest areas for feeding and as corridors between colonies, which allows separate populations to mingle and avoid inbreeding … these precious areas must not be destroyed for short-term financial gain,” she said.

Ms Joseph also questioned the economic value in the project: “Every hectare of native forest logged is being subsidised to the tune of $670 - a staggering $13 million of taxpayers’ money each year to prop up a failed, NSW native timber industry.”

However, in a lengthy reply to the Courier-Sun, Forestry Corporation said it not only disputes the green groups assertions and figures but, moreover, their organisation is invaluable to the health of the State’s woodlands.

“As part of a review into the long-term sustainability of the region’s forests and timber industry, the independently chaired project 2023 steering committee recommended investigating harvesting timber in steep areas,” a spokesperson for Forestry Corporation said.

“Our organisation is proud of the significant improvements it has made to environmental management in forests since the 1990s, which is why we are working with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to carefully design a trial that maintains this high standard of environmental protection. Technology has also significantly changed since the 1990s and the proposed trial is investigating technology that has been used successfully interstate and overseas to reduce the use of ground-based machinery such as bulldozers and minimise disturbance to soil and water.

 “The proposed trial would test the technology only in areas of regrowth forest that have been harvested for timber in the past. The proposal formed part of the discussion paper for the re-make of the Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals, which the EPA released for public consultation at the beginning of this year, and further consultation is planned in 2015 before any trial takes place.

“Timber harvesting in NSW is carefully managed and highly regulated. Forestry Corporation staff are passionate about protection of threatened species and complete detailed environmental surveys before a single tree is touched to identify and set aside additional habitat for threatened species in line with incredibly strict rules developed by expert scientific panels. If the proposed trial proceeds it would be subject to the same strict environmental conditions as all other harvesting, excepting a potential change to the limits regarding slope, and the same strict rules about preserving hollow-bearing trees and leaving buffer zones around environmental features where wildlife generally live would still apply.

“The fact that we continue to see healthy populations of koalas and other threatened species in the region’s State Forests even after a century of harvesting in some areas shows that the measures we have in place are appropriate and are working.

“Forestry Corporation of NSW manages more than two million hectares of native and plantation forest, investing in free community recreation facilities, public roads, pest and weed management and fire control, as well as conservation and sustainable timber production,” a spokesperson for Forestry Corporation said.

“Last year, the corporation as a whole returned a $27 million operating profit and declared a $9.7 million dividend, which will be returned to the NSW Government and, ultimately, taxpayers.”

However, all these assurances from Forestry Corporation have done little to appease the Nature Conservation Council or the BEC. Both are calling on the Baird Government to abandon the plan to cable log the shire’s forests. 

“The 25 degree rule once removed will not be in place just for the so called cable logging trial in the Bellingen region. Once this rule is removed this damaging method of logging will leave the whole of the NSW river system open to the use of the cable logging method, removing the oldest and best of our trees in remote areas where there will be no witness,” Ms Joseph said.

“The BEC and the community of Bellingen will do everything in our power, working with communities across the region, to prevent logging on steep slopes and to protect these fragile areas so vital to our threatened species and our forests and our precious waterways.

“BEC earnestly requests that the NSW Government immediately abandon any further attempt to remove vegetation from slopes greater than 25 degrees.”