Forestry Corporation senior manager Dean Kearney has confirmed the blockade at Sunny Corner Road that began last week has stopped haulage of timber from Gladstone State Forest.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He said logging operations were occurring using alternate access, and that the reason for additional forest closures on February 12, which forced the activists to retreat back onto Crown land, was public safety.
“We’re allowing people to have their protest,” he said. “We’re not trying to stir things up. The main thing for us in terms of forest closures is just to manage safety.”
However, Ashley Love from the Bellingen Environment Centre has said that the closures were accompanied by repeated threats of a $7000 fine for each protester.
Signs of high use by koalas have been recorded going back 20 years, and in August an inspection by the Kalang River Forest Alliance found 15 trees with koala scats (faeces) in compartments 232 and 233 of Gladstone State Forest, with four of the trees showing frequent and recent visits by a mother and joey.
“Acknowledging our blockade cannot last forever we are looking at other ways of getting the message out,” Ashley Love said.
“Joining the planned protest in Sydney on March 24 has been discussed, as has holding our own march on that date in Bellingen or Coffs Harbour.”
Dean Kearney said Forestry Corporation works to a 100-year plan seeking to balance a sustainable industry supply with environmental values and that Gladstone State Forest was routinely subjected to selective timber harvesting every 20 years or so.
“In Gladstone, about 60 per cent of the area that we’re harvesting is set aside for conservation – things like wildlife corridors, rainforest protection, buffer zones for soil and water,” he said.
“Further to this, in the areas where we do harvest trees we identify and protect a range of trees that are retained for their habitat value, such as hollow bearing trees, koala feed trees, and trees to provide seed for the forest to regenerate.
“After timber harvesting we ensure that the forest quickly regenerates to provide a renewable timber resource for future generations as well as ongoing habitat for koalas, which thrive in forests with young healthy regrowth trees.
“The fact that our production forests continue to support robust koala populations demonstrate the measures we have in place are providing protection for this important native species.”