An intact Great Koala National Park reduces fire risks

Some mainstream media, politicians and the logging industry see Australian flora and fauna as one big ' firebomb' that needs logging urgently.

"...A logged forest is at much greater risk of burning at higher severity than intact forests that have not been logged. Logged forests are at significantly greater risk of high-severity wildfire than intact (unlogged) forests." David Lindenmayer, Ecologist
>> (paywall)
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-great-national-koala-park-is-not-a-firebomb-it-s-the-opposite-20251113-p5nf1u.html
#BushFires #deforestation #landclearing #biodiversity #ThegreatKoalaNationalPark #NSWLogging #LoggingImpacts #fires #VestedInterests #LoggingIndustry #BellingenLogging #BellingenShire #risks

NSW Forestry born-again as eco-forestry looking for new markets

"The forestry industry in northern NSW is considering new financial opportunities in eco-forestry and environmental markets."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-16/great-koala-national-park-forestry-future-carbon-market/105954932
#Biodiversity #wildlife #NSWLogging #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #LoggingIndustry #MidNorthCoast #GKNP #KoalaTouristPark #firebreaks #LoggingAndLandclearing #extractivism #MinisterialDiscretion #EPBCAct

Image: The Bongil Bongil National Park has been included in the new Great Koala National Park, but the logging monster is always lurking... (Art by 'Danka')

Deforestation and no regeneration

"If you go down to the forests today, you’re in for a big surprise (mass deforestation) .
The forest has failed to regenerate after being logged. More and more logged areas no longer support trees where they once did."

"Forests that have not regenerated after logging represent a clear form of deforestation. Deforestation is a major global issue driving both escalating climate change and biodiversity loss. This is why Australia signed international agreements to both halt deforestation and to prevent biodiversity loss. And yet, this problem is evident in our own backyard."
>>
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/10/if-you-go-down-to-the-forests-today-youre-in-for-a-big-surprise-mass-deforestation/

Deforestation harms profits

"Global investors managing over $3 trillion in assets called on governments on Monday to stop and reverse deforestation and ecosystem degradation by 2030, in a statement signed ahead of a U.N. climate conference. As investors, we are increasingly concerned about the material financial risks that tropical deforestation and nature loss pose to our portfolios. Deforestation undermines the natural systems that global markets rely on - from climate regulation to food and water security."
>>
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/investors-managing-3-trillion-assets-urge-countries-stop-deforestation-2025-10-20/
#biodiversity #deforestation #LoggingImpacts #NSWLogging #loggingIndustry #BellingenLogging #climate #NativeForests #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #degradation #ClimateBreakdown #Australia #governance #EcosystemDegradation #extractivism

Holy crap, this is some "Final Destination" shit, am I right?

#LoggingIndustry

https://youtu.be/buyoU8FxkMs?si=eOz1gOnYurX4mfes

Forests, roads and mega fires
"More roads are associated with more fires"

"A problem arises when forest managers look at forests exclusively “through the lens of timber and dollar signs on trees."
>>
https://grist.org/wildfires/wildfire-prevention-roads-trump-repeal-roadless-rule-usda-forest-service/

Char Miller, "Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning" (Oregon State UP, 2024)
>>
https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/burn-scars
#LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #NSWLogging #roads #bushfires #timber #extractivism #thinning #PrescribedBurns #FireSuppression #megafires #colonialism #CounterNarratives #IndigenousPeoples #CulturalBurning #ecology

Degraded: Victoria's alpine and mountain ash forests

"Devastating fires, not logging as some claim, are to blame."

"'Woefully low' action from government."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-22/alpine-forests-in-victoria-in-serious-trouble-scientists-warn/105432774
#forests #LoggingImpacts #fires #degradation #biodiversity #governance #LoggingIndustry

Fixing outdated environmental laws (the EPBC Act)
Destruction as usual ?

“Australians are tired of the bush being bulldozed and burnt and elected a government that will act on nature and on climate." They expect "sweeping changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) in the next 18 months."

"The past failures, combined with the approval of major fossil fuel projects and the rushed passage of laws to protect Tasmania’s salmon industry, have environmentalists worried about Labor’s second term."

"Environmental organisations also want an end to the “climate blindness” of Australia’s environmental laws, an end to loopholes such as the effective exemption granted to logging under regional forest agreements, and a clearer focus on what’s needed for the recovery of threatened species."

"Corporate Australia needed to “leave its bludgeons at the door” as the process started afresh."

"Ending habitat loss was the “bottom line outcome”, ...meaning that native forest logging and agricultural land clearing must be addressed in some form."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/14/environmentalists-worry-as-labor-seeks-consensus-on-federal-nature-laws-epbc-act-epa
#EPBCAct #BiodiversityCrisis #biodiversity #ClimateBreakdown #GHG #FastTrackApprovals #extractivism #destruction #SamuelReview #LoggingIndustry #landclearing #FossilFuels #CorporateAustralia

Australia is a global deforestation hotspot,
ranked second in the world for biodiversity loss due to forest and bushland destruction
>>
https://www.greenpeace.org.au/our-work/forests/australian-deforestation/

"Deforestation in Colombia fell 33%
year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 to 27,052 hectares due to agreements with communities and a greater presence of the state and the Armed Forces, the environment ministry said"
>>
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/deforestation-colombia-falls-33-first-quarter-2025-06-05/
#deforestation #destruction #LoggingIndustry #biodiversity #NSW #Australia #extractivism #governance

Wood for the trees, Jonathan Green, November 2023
https://www.themonthly.com.au/november-2023/essays/wood-trees
#biodiversity #ecosystems #NativeForests #IndigenousPeoples #wildlife #EPBCAct #SamuelReview #extractivism #degradation #LoggingIndustry #mining #harm

"The native forest logging division of the New South Wales government’s forestry agency has posted a half-yearly loss of almost $15m, prompting renewed questions about the industry’s economic viability."

“It makes no sense that taxpayers are subsidising a loss-making business that destroys precious habitat when we should be supporting local communities and viable industries that do have a future.”"
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/16/nsw-native-forest-logging-division-half-year-report-2024-2025-losses
#LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #FCNSW #NSWLogging #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #biodiversity #wildlife #destruction

NSW forestry agency should be shut down for repeatedly breaking law, critics argue

"Professor David Heilpern, a former court magistrate, claims the NSW Forestry Corporation is no longer fit for purpose and should be disbanded. A former magistrate and one of Australia’s most experienced scientists have launched an extraordinary attack on the New South Wales government’s logging agency, describing it as effectively a “criminal organisation” that should be shut down after a string of court convictions."

"The corporation has been convicted of more than a dozen environmental offences, including a judgment in the land and environment court last year that found the agency was likely to reoffend and had poor prospects of rehabilitation.They get caught, investigated, prosecuted, a criminal conviction, a fine – which the public pays – and they carry on and do it all again."

“There is just no integrity, accountability or justice in this model of operation.”

“For the Forestry Corporation, breaking the law and harming the environment and wildlife has become like a game of charades played under the protection of the state."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/11/nsw-forestry-agency-called-criminal-organisation-by-critics
#LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #NSWLogging #BellingenLogging #SaveTuckersNob #crime #harm #biodiversity #wildlife #conservation #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #governance #accountability #extractivism

Koalas face death, attacks and mass starvation from monoculture plantations
Cost-effective management techniques for Australian wildlife

"...Displaced animals were sometimes still up in trees that were felled and ended up with broken bones, or were orphaned babies left behind. Others were attacked by cows or dogs."

"A 2023 study of reported wild koala deaths in south-east Queensland found vehicles were responsible for about half (1,431) of all fatalities."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/11/koalas-face-death-attacks-and-starvation-as-blue-gums-chopped-down-in-victoria
#biodiversity #wildlife #koalas #LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #harm #pets #Livestock #roads #vehicles #RoadTrauma #KillingZones #plantations #monoculture #extractivism #governance #Australia #extinction

Welfare of koalas living in plantations: Aerial and ground-based shooting of koalas

"..The ongoing chronic animal welfare crisis facing koalas in southwest Victoria that has been unfolding for decades. The root cause being rampant habitat loss and the relentless expansion of the blue gum plantation industry. With their natural habitat diminished, koalas are left with nowhere safe to go...Only one animal was rescued and taken into care, while 1,061 were euthanised."
>>
https://au.news.yahoo.com/photos-expose-fresh-blow-after-1061-koalas-shot-in-national-park-sad-truth-063055245.html
#biodiversity #koalas #marsupials #LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #harm #plantations #monoculture #SettlerSociety #euthanasia #Australia

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

"The logging industry is finding ways to get around the so-called ban."

"A loophole in the law banning Victoria's native timber harvesting means logging projects can still go ahead as the state government passes project approval responsibility to local councils."

"How could it be that a local council would have the expertise, the biological and ecological expertise, to approve logging in an area? When you log and regenerate an area of native forest … that same area of forest becomes much more flammable for a prolonged period of time," Professor Lindenmayer said. "I don't think that we should be adding that extra fire burden for rural and regional people to have to deal with."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-03/timber-harvesting-ban-loophole-victoria/105123078
#LoggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #bushfire #risks #conservation #biodiversity #wildlife #forests #NSWLogging #BellingenLogging #council

Dreams of environmental redemption: Reanimate the thylacine

"Perhaps we want an iconic marsupial we can walk on a lead to our local brunch spot."

"Certainly we are not up to the job: we have no experience in making thylacines happy. We have restructured the habitat where the tiger lived, decimated its prey, destroyed its culture. We have built a lot of roads: if everything goes very well and thylacines become as common as pademelons, we can look forward to seeing one on our morning commute, smeared across the highway by a logging truck."

"More likely we are hoping for something to erase our guilt, not just for the extinction of this animal (we could blame someone else for that) but for all the extinctions to come. More likely we want to feel that the damage we do isn’t permanent, that we can travel back in time." Jane Rawson
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/31/can-we-recreate-a-lost-world-in-tasmania-anything-could-happen
#Biodiversity #restoration #thylacines #extinction #marsupials #roads #LoggingIndustry #destruction #wildlife #science #creation #ecology #restoration #MAGA #Australia #writing

‘Burning Up the Biosphere'
Use of wood chips for energy generation - in large volumes
>>
https://environmentalpaper.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/threat-map-2024-1.pdf
#LoggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #WoodChips #biodiversity #ecosystems #conservation #forests #energy #ClimateBreakdown

The Tasmanian government intends to open up just under 10,000 hectares of previously protected native forest for logging, new documents released under right-to-information laws show. >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-19/tasmanian-government-moves-ahead-with-native-forestry-logging/105065596
#LoggingIndustry #LoggingIndustry #AboriginalHeritage #Heritage #NativeForests

#ExecutiveOrder #TheGuardian #ChadHanson #JohnMuirProject #logging #LoggingIndustry

3/5

Human-mediated extirpation of wildlife through logging

"Before industrial logging in south-west British Columbia, there were nearly 1,000 spotted owls in the old-growth forests. But they have vanished in recent decades, victims of habitat destruction. Activists have tried in vain to hold the government to account, alleging protected species laws have failed to prevent the extirpation of the owls."

"Efforts to revive the population have failed, with a pair of owls released from the breeding program dying within months. The lone female in the wild is also believed to have died."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/12/canada-owl-rats-valentines-day

What happened to the Northern Spotted Owl? >>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_spotted_owl
#LoggingImpacts #harm #birds #biodiversity #NativeForests #LoggingIndustry #Wildlife #habitat #destruction #degradation #extirpation #NSWLogging #SaveTuckersNob #koalas #BellingenLogging #SettlerSociety #governance #ecocide