"It was such a great vibe," Kalang River Forest Alliance spokesperson Catherine Jones said. "We had wonderful engaging speakers who the crowd loved and we marched around Coffs singing 'Headwaters not Deadwaters leave Kalang alone', and people came out of the shops to clap and cheer us on."

Related: Kalang meeting declares fight on

The rally was addressed by Bellingen mayor Dominic King, ecologist Mark Graham and Greens MP Cate Faehrmann.

The day before, people from the Bellingen Environment Centre had taken Ms Faehrmann to inspect the area scheduled for logging.

"This beautiful forest had large hollow-bearing trees providing habitat to threatened species like the yellow-bellied glider and spotted-tail quoll, as well as glossy black cockatoo feed trees," Ms Faehrmann said.

"This area has one of the highest rainfalls in NSW, steep slopes and highly erodible soils. Logging these areas will be an environmental disaster."

She said after joining locals at the protest on Tuesday, she went to inspect recent logging at Wild Cattle Creek State Forest.

"Huge areas of land had been clearfelled, including large habitat trees and areas of rainforest, and there had even been reported koala sightings by loggers,

"Logging our public native forests is unsustainable and uneconomical, relying on government support to survive. This is madness when we are facing an extinction crisis. We must preserve our remaining public native forests to help protect our threatened species and combat the climate emergency."

A declaration from those at the rally was slipped under the locked door of the Forestry Corp office:

"To Coffs Harbour Forestry Office.

I write this letter to you on behalf of the people here today and the following NGOs: Kalang River Forest Alliance, Kalang Progress Association, Bellingen Environment Centre, North Coast Environment Council, North East Forest Alliance and the peak NSW Environment organisation - Nature Conservation Council.

Because of your lack of consultation with the local Kalang community and the local Gumbaynggirr people and their cultural values, Forests NSW does not have our permission to log the Headwaters of the Kalang Valley.

We believe that you have no regard for the effect logging will have on the Headwaters biodiversity, the threatened ecosystems, and the endangered species of the Kalang River System.

It has been proven that Forests NSW are an economic threat to our Native Forests. Native forests are worth far more in the ground because of their ecosystem services, carbon sink values, tourism, and climate change mitigation.

We believe you that you have not earnt a "social licence", and therefore demand that you cease plans to log the Kalang Headwaters immediately."

"I feel with this kind of momentum and passion Forestry have to take notice of our demands," Catherine said. "Because we are not going away and growing by the minute. We will not be stopped."