The idea of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) and ongoing clearfell logging of native forests

"Government GKNP proposal falls short according to Ashley Love...He says a recent environmental report, prepared on behalf of and with input from local environmentalists, indicates the current Government proposal is “grossly inadequate...It fails to adequately protect the largest coastal koala population in NSW, which occupies Bongil Bongil National Park, Pine Creek, Orara East and Tuckers Nob State Forests."

“The majority of plantation production is for pulpwood into a market that is now heavily oversupplied in South-east Asia or for burning as “biofuel” for electricity production.”
>>
https://coffscoast.newsofthearea.com.au/government-gknp-proposal-falls-short-according-to-ashley-love
#Biodiversity #wildlife #NSWLogging #governance #failure #thegreatkoalaNationalPark #ClearFelling #plantations #BellingenShire #TuckersNob #NSWForestry #extractivism

Native forest regeneration failure

Logging devastated Victoria’s native forests – and new research shows 20% has failed to grow back

"Following the end of native logging in Victoria on January 1 2024, the state’s majestic forests might be expected to regenerate and recover naturally. But our new research shows that’s not always the case. "

"These degraded areas no longer hold the value they once did and they cannot provide the same level of ecosystem services such as carbon storage, water purification, or habitat for wildlife."

"With no current government restoration plan, these landscapes will remain degraded indefinitely. Our research suggests leaving nature to its own devices would mean losing a fifth of the forests logged over the past 40 years. Bringing the trees back has multiple benefits and would be well worth the investment."
>>
https://theconversation.com/logging-devastated-victorias-native-forests-and-new-research-shows-20-has-failed-to-grow-back-254465

>> original
A significant increase in forest regeneration failure following logging is driven by climatic and management factors
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0301479725011454
#biodiversity #wildlife #NativeForests #LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #extractivism #clearfelling #degradation #regeneration #failure #ClimateBreakdown

Documentation of the systematic destruction of Tuckers Nob forests

"Presentation for Friends of Tuckers Nob on the history and significance of Tuckers Nob State Forest and why it must be included in the NSW Government's proposed 'Great' Koala National Park. Based on a recent preliminary report submitted to government, showing the original forest and koala sightings, with a list of moratorium areas (including Tuckers). All the most recent developments, bringing the viewer up to date. This is why we need a #GreaterKoalaPark, with no logging."

The video has a link to the report containing the results (maps) of the investigations by Dr Tim Cadman and local community-based citizen scientists:
>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKZvVjG_XvM
#ResourceFrontiers #extractivism #biodiversity #ecocide #koalas #NativeForests #rainforest #BellingenLogging #clearfelling #NSWLogging #Bellingen #community #trauma #harm #moratorium #FCNSW #plantation #conversion #annexation #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #SaveTuckersNob #bushfire #risk

“The findings from this research have changed my views on clear-cutting and sustainable forest management. While clear-cut harvest produces a lot of dead organic matter, we now know that living trees are a critical source of active carbon that generates persistent soil carbon." Prof. Cindy Prescott
>>
https://forestry.ubc.ca/branchlines-articles/the-carbon-flux-of-life/
#soil #ecosystems #biodiversity #climate #LoggingImpacts #ClearFelling #BellingenLogging #NSWLogging

004Tarkeeth - Koala habitat converted to plantation

Dr. Cadman's video "shows active and recent conversion of original forest and koala habitat to plantation inside the proposed Greater Koala Park, undertaken by #NSWForestry despite repeated warnings. This is what clearfall forestry looks like."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVx6fula8wU
#NSWForestry #FCNSW #RemnantVegetation #BellingenLogging #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #koalas #NativeForests #conversion #plantations
#BellingenLogging #ClearFelling #logging #Tarkeeth #destruction

The history of forests
We are Forests: Inhabiting Territories in Struggle, Jean-Baptiste Vidalou
Translated by Stephen Muecke

"Governments try to deny it since their interests are placed in other places. They talk about sustainability, ecological transition, and zero carbon economy, but it’s all just a show. Behind the scenes rules the same extracting logic. The various mechanisms for reducing gas emissions due to deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) are only an illusion when they are directly linked to carbon credits and compensation mechanisms. Timber companies continue to fiercely exploit the forests and, at the same time, pride themselves as “acting for the climate”. The cynicism goes even further when these companies, with the support of governments, drive out local populations in the name of global forest management. According to these companies, the native peasants do not have the knowledge required to exploit these territories. They do not fully “own” the land since they do not capitalize it. A paternalist colonial approach indeed!"

"All of today’s modernized forestry, with its super-powered harvesters and heavy loaders, is geared towards this one purpose: planned harvesting and rapid product exploitation."
>>
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=we-are-forests-inhabiting-territories-in-struggle--9781509556519
#book #NativeForests #LoggingIndustry #FossilFuels #WarOfTheDemoiselles #StopLogging #NSWForestry #extractivism #EnvironmentalJustice #governance #ClearFelling #sacrifice #roads #biodiversity #ClimateEmergency

Save Tucker Nob State Forest
Koala @ Tuckers Nob Oct 2023 video

They say there are no koalas in Tuckers Nob State Forest (026/027)
They say there is no remnant vegetation in the NSW Forest Corporation floral assemblage.
They say there are no threatened species in NSW state forests.

The government corporation is planning to log and clear-fell Tuckers Nob SF
This is to take place during the prime breeding cycle of the koalas.
Numerous plants and animals will lose their home and maybe lives.

Stop logging in a biodiversity crisis
Stop logging native forests in a climate emergency

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al7emQdTuUc
#SaveTuckersNob
#FCNSW #NSWForestry #ForestryCorporation #deforestation #LoggingIndustry #ClearFelling #Australia #TuckersNob026027 #Gleniffer #GlenifferRoad #BellingenLogging #NativeForests #destruction #StopLogging #wildlife #koalas #biodiversity #ClimateEmergency

Government Correction of claims within Michael West Media article ‘Secret Forest: Australia rivals the Congo on deforestation, blocks media access to world scientists'

"During the decade to 2020, Australia recorded an increase in forested area of 4.4 million hectares – the second largest increase of any nation recorded in that period according the to the FAO Global Forest Resource Assessment."

"The Australian Government remains committed to transparent and consistent sustainable forest management criteria and indicator reporting..."
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/about/news/correction-forestry-article

Secret Forest: Australia rivals The Congo on deforestation, blocks media access to world scientists
https://michaelwest.com.au/secret-forest-australia-rivals-the-congo-on-deforestation-blocks-media-access-to-world-scientists/
#deforestation #Australia #LoggingIndustry #ClearFelling #NSWForestry #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #biodiversity
Image: Tuckers Nob SF, Gleniffer Rd

Could logging and clear cutting make the Powerful Owl extinct?

Northern spotted owls are functionally extinct in the US
"Clear-cutting in Clatsop County, Oregon, the habitat of the northern spotted owl. The woes of the northern spotted owl began with widespread logging last century in Oregon and California which has since wiped out swathes of old-growth forest, the bird’s natural habitat. Today, a mere 15% of the original habitat of the northern spotted owl remains, with the result that there has been a devastating drop in numbers of the species."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/07/endangered-owl-who-can-only-be-saved-if-we-kill-other-owls

The Powerful Owl is a regular in the Tuckers Nob State Forest that is part of the Great Koala National Park. The area is to be logged and clear-felled
https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10562
https://ebird.org/species/powowl1?siteLanguage=en_AU

#birds #owls #anticoagulants #ClearFelling #NativeForests #extinction #LoggingImpacts #NSWLogging #SaveTuckersNob #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark

The koalas in Tuckers Nob State Forest 'Plantation' need your help
We are raising funds to help save the koalas of the Bellingen/ Gleniffer native forests from logging and clear-felling,
>>
https://www.gofundme.com/f/voice-for-koalas-be-a-part-of-the-solution

>> #SaveTuckersNob
#Gleniffer #RosesRd #GlenifferRoad #BellingenLogging #NSWForestry #ClearFelling #TuckersNob026027 #SaveTuckersNob #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #koalas #wildlife #biodiversity

"Australia now has about 100 ecological communities at risk."

"Australia is an enormous contributor to global biodiversity loss. A recent study found 97 species in Australia have now gone extinct since British colonisation in 1788, with roughly 10% of all native mammal species gone forever. The numbers would be higher if invertebrate losses were included."

"What happened here? These forests have been subject to decades of intensive clearfell logging, as well extensive cutting dating back to the late 1920s."

"Our analysis found nearly 70% of these forest communities are already either severely disturbed by fire and logging or exist within 70 metres of severely disturbed areas."

https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-victorias-iconic-mountain-ash-trees-at-risk-its-every-species-in-their-community-214582
#LoggingIndustry #NativeForests #ClearFelling #extractivism #degradation #biodiversity #restoration #extinction makers

An end to plunder and pillage: how a First Nations nature reserve became a model for the world

"Amid widespread global biodiversity loss and last-ditch international meetings to protect what remains, many now wonder if the triumphs – and stumbles – of Gwaii Hanaas could be a model for how Indigenous stewardship of lands and waters could act as a safety rail on a planet dangerously out of control."

"With mines running dry and fish stocks depleted from over-harvesting, industry turned its focus in the mid-20th century to clear-cut logging – with plans to fully clear the archipelago of old-growth trees by 1996. Clearcut logging in other parts of Haida Gwaii is still permitted, and there are growing concerns that the practice isn’t sustainable, with more than 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) of forest still clear-cut each year."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/we-know-how-to-win-how-a-haida-nature-reserve-became-a-model-for-the-world
#TraditionalKnowledge #IndigenousStewardship #IndigenousPeoples #Haida #Canada #coexisting #ecosystem #exractivism #IndustrialLogging #blockades #landslides #ClearFelling #biodiversity

Bellingen's Tuckers Nob Forest remnant vegetation to be clear-felled

Dr Tim Cadman documents remnant vegetation and rainforest trees that might soon be eliminated by the NSW Forest Corporation. Giant fossil fuel machinery will cause destruction and might bring pathogens (Myrtle rust) from other areas. In the so called 'plantation' area lantana is thriving. Koalas and other wildlife will be robbed of their habitat. Reality and State Forestry maps seem to have nothing to do with each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkYZj2YhUfE
#ForestryCorporation #ClearFelling #NSWLogging #MyrtleRust #weeds #rainforest #BellingenLogging #Bellingen #GlenifferRoad #koalas #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #RealityDenial #TuckersNob026027 #SaveTuckersNob #biodiversity

Bellingen's Tuckers Nob Forest remnant vegetation to be logged

Inside Tuckers Nob State Forest (26/27) Dr. Tim Cadman documented threatened species (again). Many rainforest trees, such as threatened Ringwoods were identified. Syzygium anisatum/Anetholea anisata is endemic to the subtropical Bellinger Valley.

The background acoustics (in the video) is the fossil fuel machinery bashing their way through the native forest. (Hillier Trail) It is making the home of diverse and threatened wildlife and plants machine-ready for the clear-felling machines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3JPiYD0W9M

"Peer-reviewed scientific research here and overseas suggests clear-felling has serious, long-term and negative ecological effects. Such concerns have led to clear-felling being reviewed, modified, and in some cases, abandoned in developed countries such as the United States and Canada."
https://www.theage.com.au/national/clear-felling-a-big-burning-issue-20020513-gdu78r.html

#DevelopedCountries #Australia #ClearFelling #BellingenLogging #GlenifferRoad #RosesRoad #FossilFuel #SoundEcology #NSWForestry #SaveTuckersNob #StopLogging #RemnantVegetation #ThreatenedSpecies #flora #ringwoods #NativeForests #biodiversity #destruction

Bellingen core koala habitat and denial 1/2

Australia's foundation rests on the erroneous act of 'terra nullius'. The British declared the continent ‘vacant’, ‘without settled inhabitants or settled law’. The denial of the existence of the Indigenous peoples and their cultures has detrimental consequences right into the 21 century.

Similarly, all that is impeding on settlers' livestock or crop interests is declared a pest and usually leads to the eradication of Australian endemic flora and fauna.

Land use for extractive purposes, such as monoculture plantations, often has remnants of native vegetation and with time endemic wildlife populate these habitats. The Australian government, having signed various international commitments to biodiversity and climate transition, is under pressure to conform to these environmental agreements.

Endangered or threatened species could pose an 'obstacle' to traditional 'business as usual' such as logging, deforestation and clear felling operations. Then it is best to not acknowledge the existence of these animals and plants.

This could take the form of maps (Koala habitat maps seem to not cover State forests in NSW ) and a database glitch could possibly erase data collected by citizen scientists. Or the State Forest corporation could just be a priori exempt from having to address biodiversity flora and fauna. Managed data sparsity also could lead one to a conclusion that 'nothing lives there.' Koalas in this case are non-existent. In an obstacle free plantation, clear felling can take place with a good conscience. Should a glider or koala stray into the native forest it might just become 'collateral damage' in the normal 'harvesting' operations.

>Bellingen core koala habitat and denial 2/2
https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/111118750606893004

#TerraNullius #koalas #StateForests #ForestryCorporation #NSWLogging #ClearFelling #BellingenLogging #SaveTuckersNob #denial #biodiversity #extinction #BiodiversityEmergency #ClimateEmergency #biodiversity

Surveying remnant vegetation inside the clear- felling zone at Tuckers Nob forest by Dr. Tim Cadman:
Mapping remnant vegetation with Avenza inside Tuckers Nob compartments 26 and 27 now zoned active, and to be logged. "More ringwoods, some lovely bloodwoods, an original tallowwood, and two patches of natural forest. All most likely to be converted to plantation, and sold as sustainable certified plantation."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3lurB_bTl8

Mapping with Avenza
https://www.avenza.com/avenza-maps/

#StopLogging #RemnantVegetation #NativeForests #NSW #NSWLogging #ClearFelling #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #Koalas #habitat #BellingenLogging #Bellingen #GlenifferRoad #TuckersNobStateForest #SaveTuckersNob #biodiversity #RemnantVegetation

Logging Bellingen's biodiversity

Bellingen is being hit by an 'infrastructure tsunami' (William Laurance) this year. Rural country roads are turning into a highway like network. Gleniffer Road is made 'logging ready' and Roses Road gets a daily smear of toxic coal-tar to take the added heavy vehicles.

Gleniffer Road infrastructure cuts through native ecosystems for human convenience. The road is designed solely with fossil fuel traffic in mind. Getting motorists from a to b in the fastest way and getting massive logging machinery into the remaining (Tuckers Nob) forest. Fossil fuel free mobility of humans and non human animals never entered the design considerations.

The habitat of the more-than-human assemblages is fragmented and degraded. Peri-urban sprawl (roads, cars, houses, dogs & cats) further poses a threat to wildlife.

It's estimated that 10 million Australian animals are killed on roads by (signage blind) motorists. For a country with one of the highest rates of animal extinctions in the world this is a lot of biodiversity to sacrifice. The maimed and dead seem to be an accepted 'side effect' of this mobility.

From the public roads the Forest Corporation cuts a labyrinth of logging roads (fishbone pattern) into the heart of the forest. Massive fossil powered machinery is then set to work to clear fell Australia's biodiversity.

Noise pollution, toxins from tyres and exhaust fumes poison freshwater ecosystems, the soil and the air. The survivors of the roadkill and deforestation carnage have nowhere to go. Birds fall silent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_ecology

Can ‘road ecology’ save millions of animals?
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/can-road-ecology-save-millions-of-animals/

How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
https://wwnorton.com/books/crossings

Pollution from tyres
https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals
#Wildlife #conservation #roadkill #RoadEcology #logging #roads #Bellingen #SaveTuckersNob #BiodiversityEmergency #ClimateEmergency #GlenifferRoad #ClearFelling #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #extinction makers

Could the stranded assets of the forestry industry be recycled?

We've done Victoria
"By the end of this year, native forest logging will cease in Victoria. After more than 50 years of clearfelling and other destructive logging practices. The supply of sawlogs in Victoria was close to being exhausted, and the state’s logging industry had long been financially unviable."
https://theconversation.com/we-cant-just-walk-away-after-the-logging-stops-in-victorias-native-forests-heres-what-must-happen-next-206596

Now for NSW
Logging 95 % of the Great Koala National Park
In Victoria "the harvesters and their machinery were left sitting idle after the government fast-forwarded its intended 2030 phase out of native forest timber harvesting to January 1, 2024 after a court decision last November locked the workers out of the state’s native forests...25 of the state’s 27 harvest and haulage crews have been on VicForests stand-down payments since last year’s Supreme Court decision."

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/outofwork-forestry-crew-to-catch-firebreak-contracts/news-story/ee6a84bdf66de04fdeea2c7216002dce
#NSWlogging #LoggingIndustry #BellingenLogging #ClearFelling #NativeForests #bushfires #climate #tourism #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #FossilFuel #machinery #StrandedAssets #ClimateEmergency #BiodiversityEmergency

Analysis of Vegetation Management Regulatory Frameworks in Australia

"EDO’s Analysis of Vegetation Management Regulatory Frameworks in Australia examines land clearing laws across all Australia jurisdictions, highlighting key issues and areas for improvement."

"In 2021, over 100 countries, including Australia, pledged to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030 through the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use (Glasgow Declaration). The Glasgow Declaration includes six key commitments, including to conserve forests and accelerate their restoration; and to reverse forest loss and degradation while ensuring robust policies and systems are in place to accelerate the transition to an economy that is resilient and advances forest, sustainable land use, biodiversity and climate goals."

"WWF-Australia commissioned EDO to undertake an analysis of legal frameworks across Australia that regulate land clearing, to see how they match up against the Glasgow Declaration."

"The scorecard shows New South Wales and Queensland sit at the bottom of the leaderboard, with South Australia placing first."

https://www.edo.org.au/2023/08/29/vegetation-management-regulatory-frameworks-analysis/
#EDO #Australia #NSW #NSWlogging #ForestryCorporation #NativeForests #BellingLogging #ClearFelling #degradation #RemnantVegetation #SaveTuckersNob #biodiversity #koalas #GlasgowDeclaration #biodiversity #climate

"Forest Culture in Relation to Industrial Pursuits", 1 8 7 1
Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller on forestry:

"Strange as it may appear, an impression seems to be prevailing in these communities, as if our forests have to serve no other purposes but to provide wood for our immediate and present wants, be it fuel or timber."

"For even after warning of climatic changes, and after the commencing scarcity of wood, no forest administration … has been as yet initiated in any portion of Australia". Wilderness remained "unguarded" and in some places was "already annihilated". 

"No statesman, I feel assured, would want to impoverish our woods at the expense of the next generation."  

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-09/melbourne-cbd-bourke-street-car-crash-one-dead-five-injured/102834812
#ForestryCorporation #LoggingIndustry #NSWlogging #NativeForests #ClearFelling #destruction #degradation #StateForests #SaveTuckersNob #fires #firestorm #bushfires #colonial #plantations #botany #koalas #climate #biodiversity #NatureRights #commons #Ecology #biosphere #EnvironmentalManagement

Image: Koala habitat: Bellingen, Tuckers Nob State Forest, 2023