O’Farrell uses tricky language that rules ‘in’ logging of National Parks

Government claims of no commercial logging in National Parks is tricky language and should be treated with suspicion said NCEC President and long-time forest campaigner Susie Russell.

“What they are saying is that the Government is prepared to accept logging in National Parks as long as it is not ‘commercial’.

“There is a real danger they are planning to cook up a scheme and introduce some kind of ‘non-commercial’ logging. They are already trialling this in the Murray Valley National Park and calling it ‘ecological thinning‘,” she said.

“The NSW forest logging industry has already soaked up more than $300 million of Government handouts since 1995. They got the handouts as compensation for the creation of national parks. Now they’ve spent the money they want the Parks. ¹

“It’s a lose lose for the community and the environment. The taxpayer has paid out the industry to get reserves, now it is being asked to further subsidise them while losing all the environmental benefits protected forests provide.

“The economic and social benefits are far greater if the trees are left standing. The rump of the native forest industry is contracting due to downturns in the housing and construction industry and greater awareness among consumers. Many people don’t want to walk floorboards that used to be koala homes.

“Most of us understand that forests provide many public goods apart from their inherent beauty. These include being home to many of our unique plants and animals; acting as water reservoirs; flood mitigation and erosion control leading to cleaner rivers and better fish habitat; long-term carbon storage; and a whole host of tourism and recreation opportunities,” she said.

“What does logging these forests return? Trashed weedscapes like many of the forests still under control of the Forestry Corporation, silted up waterways and eroded hillsides, declining numbers of rare animals and plants, more extreme bushfires due to the dried out landscape and younger trees and no long-term carbon storage. Not to mention the loss of beauty, wildness and tranquility.

“The Liberal and National Party members of the Government have supported the Shooters recommendations for logging in National Parks. Just as in Queensland and Victoria they are opening up National Parks and protected areas for logging. This is based on hatred of all things green…. and there is nothing with more greens in it, than a forest,” Ms Russell said.

^1. $120m in 1995-2000, $80m 2005-2010, $97m in 2010, and additional millions to buy out contracts.

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Hyperlinks provide references.

Parker and Hodgkinson take the sanctuary out of Marine Parks.

Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson and Minister for the Environment Robyn Parker today gutted important protection measures in existing marine parks by removing sanctuary zones from beaches and headlands within marine Parks.

The North Coast Environment Council spokesperson and keen fisherman and diver, Mr John Jeayes, said today in Port Macquarie, “This decision to remove sanctuary protection in some areas of marine parks by Ministers Parker and Hodgkinson is appalling. It is clearly yet another advance to the Shooters and Fishers Party at the expense of the environment.”

Ms Hodgkinson said in the joint media release, “After years of political interference and decisions based on poor or incomplete science by the previous Labor Government, the credibility of Marine Parks and our fishing industries has been undermined,”.

 Mr Jeayes stated, “This hypocritical duo, Parker and Hodgkinson, claim they are taking the politics out of marine parks but in fact they are doing the exact opposite by interfering and removing the scientific judgement which established the sanctuary zones in the first place.

 “The precautionary principle of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999 states that  “Lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing a measure to prevent degradation of the environment where there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage”.

 Mr Jeayes pointed out forcefully, “It does not say remove protection from a recognised sanctuaryand see what happens in a six month review by a Marine Estate Expert Knowledge Panel headed by an economist!

 “The NSW Government is misrepresenting the Independent Scientific Audit of Marine Parks recommendations. The Beeton study did not recommend fishing in sanctuary zones, rather it recommended “that the current system of marine parks as established in NSW be maintained” and that “no-take zones are important”.

 “If these two ministers want to commission independent scientific reviews that is fine, and if they find the sanctuary zones redundant then they would have a case, that is scientific method. But what these two ministers are doing is appeasing a political ally. Their actions have nothing to do with sustainability, they clearly have no genuine concern about the marine environment or declining fish stocks,” added Mr Jeayes.

EASY EMU PASS FOR MOTORISTS – BUT NO EASY PASS FOR EMUS

It seems the NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS,) has plenty of space for motorists to roam the network of toll roads around Sydney using the latest 30 day eMu passes. However, now that the RMS has shelved plans to build a dedicated overpass across the proposed Pacific Highway upgrade east of Grafton, the real Emu will have to be content with narrow 4m high concrete underpasses.

The currently exhibited Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) identifies the underpasses as mostly concrete drainage structures, and an overpass will only be built if the Emus fail to use these culverts.

Official National Parks and Wildlife counts show there are now less than 100 Coastal Emus surviving in the Clarence Valley, and they constitute the only population of any size remaining on the east coast of New South Wales.

“Under the proposed upgrade, the Emu’s traditional movement corridors will be severed by 50kms of fenced motorway, which will force the birds to travel up to 15km to find any sort of crossing point”, said John Edwards a spokesperson for the North Coast Environment Council (NCEC). “At the same time, while there is evidence that some small animals will use those drainage structures, the RMS has provided no evidence that the Emus will cope with any type of underpass”, he said.

The EIS identifies only one dedicated concrete Emu underpass of the 40m wide motorway, with some half dozen bridges and a number of box culverts assigned the dual purpose of dealing with flood waters, and allowing Emus to pass beneath them.

The NCEC points out that there is no certainty that all these underpasses will actually eventuate. “The RMS has a track record of changing its plans” said Mr Edwards. “For example, the 1999 EIS for the Karuah to Bulahdelah section, showed one fauna overpass and 9 underpasses, but ultimately only 6 underpasses and 2 overhead rope crossings were constructed, with no overpasses at all. In fact there are only three fauna overpasses on the entire Pacific Highway between Sydney and Brisbane, one at Bonville and others at Yelgun and Chindera. This is totally inadequate”, he said.

The proposed motorway will effectively split the Clarence Valley Coastal Emu population in two, making it harder for either to survive, and it now seems a large area of known foraging grounds near Shark Creek will be fenced off entirely, further reducing the population’s range.

“Any claims in the EIS of “ecological sustainability” and “no significant environmental impact” are a complete nonsense”. The RMS needs to present a proposal that includes wildlife overpasses, to ensure landscape connectivity is built into highway infrastructure”, Mr Edwards said.

While it is easy to obtain a 30 day pass that suits motorists during the holiday period, the RMS needs to consider easier EMU passes that will work to ensure the survival of the endangered Coastal Emu population.

Protections for Grey Nurse Shark Returned

The North Coast Environment Council (NCEC) today welcomed with some reservations the return of the protections for the critically endangered grey nurse shark at Fish Rock and Green Island near South West Rocks and at several other key aggregation sites. There will be a 200m bait fishing ban around these sites.

 Mr John Jeayes of the NCEC said the previous ban on bait and live bait line fishing by the NSW Labor government was removed on April 30, 2011, by Primary Industries Minister, Katrina Hodgkinson while a three month review of the science and a public consultation period were carried out.

 The new protections for the grey nurse shark include a ban on the use of bait by recreational fishers within grey nurse shark critical habitat at Fish Rock and Green Island, and Magic Point near Sydney. As well bait will be banned within 200m of the key aggregation sites at North Solitary Island, South Solitary Island and Mermaid Reef near Crowdy Head.

“It is absolutely outrageous that a critically endangered species has had to suffer continual hooking causing injury and even death, for over 16 months while the government worked out that sharks eat fish and that if you put a juicy slab or a live bait in front of the shark it will take it,” Mr Jeayes remarked. “Even now there will be an advisory compliance period of 12 months while fishers get used to the new regulations.”

 “That science was already in the Government’s hands and nothing new has been added. The community consultation was also overwhelmingly in favour of increased protection, even 50% of the recreational fishermen who made submissions were for protection measures. The reasons for this delay are obviously political,” he said.

 “NCEC would particularly like to thank Cate Faehrmann, the Greens MLC, for her fantastic effort on this and also Luke Foley the Labor environment spokesperson. Compliance and enforcement will now be the issue. Recreational fishermen will still be able to troll, spin, jig and use plastics within the 200 m zone and spear fishermen will still be able to spear pelagics or surface fish like Spanish Mackeral,” he said.

 Mr Jeayes said that there have been several instances in the past where the no bait rule was disregarded by fishers and there were some spear fishermen who took any fish they liked, particularly at Fish Rock.

“Conservationists and divers, as well as the Fisheries Department we hope, will be monitoring activity within the zones and if we record instances of flouting the new restrictions we will call on the Government for 1500 m sanctuaries as were promoted by scientific studies in the Fish Rock and Green Island areas.”

 “We know most of the fishers using the area will want to do the right thing but they will also need to help to preserve their sport by educating visitors and the occasional rogue fisher., he said.

 

NCEC Call for Urgent Action on Pine Creek Koalas

The North Coast Environment Council has called on the NSW Government to make an immediate response to the release of an Australian Museum study that shows a serious decline in the Koala population in the Pine Creek area, south of Coffs Harbour.

North Coast Environment Council vice -president Ashley Love said The Pine Creek Koala population has long been recognised as is part of one of the three remaining Koala strongholds in coastal NSW .The report also comes following a recent report of a serious decline in the Koala population in the Tweed valley
The North Coast Environment Council has called for an immediate assessment of the remaining Koala population and a halt on any further logging or clearing in Pine Creek State Forest until the assessment is completed.

The Australian Museum Study, whilst not a population assessment , indicates that there has been a serious decline in the Pine Creek Koala population since the last assessment was undertaken in 2000. The report identifies logging on Pine Creek State forests as a likely contributing factor to the decline in Koalas.
The Aust Museum study identifies that there were 65 koala road mortalities from 2000 to 2010. Over the same period the clearfelling of over 1000 hectares of flooded gum plantation in Pine Creek State forest has removed the home range area large enough for at least 20 koalas Mr Love said.

A recent NSW Government proposal to abandon a Pine Creek Koala Plan of Management has also come under strong criticism from local conservationists .
The Pine Creek Kola Plan of Management was the first and only Koala management plan prepared by Forests NSW and involved many hundreds of hours of volunteer community input in the plan preparation Mr Love said.

In 2003 with transfer of parts of Pine Creek State Forest the Koala plan effectively became a plan covering a number of land tenures and a model for the planning process taken up in 2008 in the NSW Governments statewide Koala Recovery Plan.

Now it looks like the real reason the NSW Government wants to get rid of the Pine Creek Koala Management Plan is that it is not saving the local Koalas, Mr Love said.

Further information: The Aust Museum report is available on http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadprojects/projects/pac_hwy/documents/ambs_final_koala_report_nov11.pdf .

CONSERVATION GROUPS ASK MINISTERS TO INTERVENE AS NEW EPA FAILS ITS FIRST FORESTRY TEST

Conservation groups have written to the NSW Minister for the Environment and Minister for Primary Industries asking them to take urgent action to stop illegal logging of Rufous Scub-bird habitat in Styx River State Forest, east of Armidale, and instigate an independent inquiry.

The Rufous Scrub-bird is a small secretive understorey bird of highland wet forests in north-east NSW. It is a living fossil with a lineage dating back 97 to 65 million years but is now listed as vulnerable to extinction, with burning and logging recognised as primary threats.

North East Forest Alliance Spokesperson Dailan Pugh said that in 2007 a Forests NSW ecologist saw Rufous Scrub-birds at 7 locations in compartment 502 of Styx River State Forest.

“Forests NSW identified these records as extremely reliable and they were included in NSW’s Wildlife Atlas.

“Forests NSW’s Threatened Species Licence requires that all suitable habitat within 320 metres of such records must be protected from logging and management burns.
“When a local conservationist inspected the area in March he was shocked to find that Forests NSW had burnt the bird’s habitat and were in the process of logging it. When he checked their logging plans he found that all the records of the Rufous Scrub-birds had been deleted” Mr. Pugh said.

North Coast Environment Council President Susie Russell said she had met with the regional forester about the issue. “I was told that when planning the current logging Forests NSW questioned their ecologist about his records and decided that he had erroneously identified a common bird for the Rufous Scrub-bird.

“In an astounding move, apparently without undertaking new surveys, Forests NSW then attempted to delete all records made by their ecologist and proceeded to ignore both the records of the Rufous Scrub-bird and the mapped habitat in their planning process.

“We know that Forests NSW are desperate for timber and it seems they are prepared to go to any length, including breaching their licence conditions, to obtain it” Ms Russell said.

Clarence Environment Centre spokesperson, John Edwards, said that in response to Forests NSW’s claims that no suitable habitat existed in the area, he organised a visit to the area by two experienced ornithologists.

“Contrary to Forests NSW’s claims, both experts agreed that there are extensive areas of ideal habitat for the Rufous Scrub-bird and that it appeared that logging areas would have been good habitat prior to being trashed.

“Conservationists are dismayed that despite it being over a month since blatantly illegal logging of the habitat of a threatened species was reported to the new Environmental Protection Authority they have failed to undertake a proper investigation and refused to stop the logging.

“We have therefore appealed to the responsible Government Ministers to immediately stop the logging while an independent inquiry into this sordid affair is undertaken” Mr. Edwards said.

Please don’t aid forest destruction Mr Oakeshott!

See letter from forty-seven environment and community advocacy groups here:

Don’t aid forest destruction Mr Oakeshott