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

'Plantation' logging is native forest logging in koala habitat

Tuckers Nob Compartment 017 >>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTwM15WrJpg
#LoggingImpacts #destruction #NSWLogging #FCNSW #koalas #biodiversity #rainforest #The #GreatKoalaNationalPark #SaveTuckersNob

Logging machinery and other combustion machines are driving koalas out of their habitat at Bellingen/ Gleniffer's Tuckers Nob forests.
#biodiversity #dispersal #bellingen #gleniffer #GlenifferRoad #NSWLogging #cars #sprawl #FCNSW #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #SaveTuckersNob

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

Logging the great koala national park

"Before the next election round lets make sure The Great Koala National Park is secured. Its the last chance for the survival of our Koala population on the Eastern Seaboard of Australia."
>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE7NQbRGZ2U
#biodiversity #FCNSW #NSWLogging #governance #harm #destruction #pinecreek #SaveTuckersNob #wildlife #koalas #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #LoggingImpacts

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

Logging in forest earmarked for koala national park increasing under NSW Labor, analysis finds
“Far from protecting the great koala national park, they are accelerating its degradation."

"Logging of native forest in the proposed great koala national park (GKNP) in northern New South Wales has intensified since the Minns government took office, according to new analysis by conservation advocates."

The report, which the state’s forestry corporation disputes, found 7,185 hectares (17,700 acres) were logged within the promised park in the 21 months since the March 2023 state election. Dailan Pugh, the president of the North East Forest Alliance, said this was about 8.4% of the area identified for potential logging and included habitat for endangered koalas and another 37 threatened species....They’re still logging areas they’ve identified as high density for koalas,” Pugh said."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/13/logging-in-forest-earmarked-for-koala-national-park-increasing-under-nsw-labor-analysis-finds
#TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #degradation #NSWLogging #FCNSW #BellingenLogging #SaveTuckersNob #koalas #gliders #biodiversity #governance #StopLoggingKoalaHabitat

Drone locates 20 koalas in forest due to be logged next year

"A thermal drone imaging survey has been conducted over a plantation within the Great Koala National Park footprint. 20 koalas were detected over two nights at Tuckers Nob State Forest, which is due to be logged in the New Year."

The so called 'plantations' are more like native forests. Tuckers Nob forest must be included in the great koala national park. Video>>
https://www.nbnnews.com.au/2024/12/18/drone-locates-20-koalas-in-forest-due-to-be-logged-next-year/
#LoggingImpacts #NSWLogging #BellingenLogging #koalas #SaveTuckersNob #Bellingen #Gleniffer #plantations #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #wildlife #conservation #drones #RadioTelemetry #FCNSW #destruction

The government promised a koala national park. Then their loggers moved in

"Logging inside the Great Koala National Park assessment area is four times more intense when measured by area than in nearby state forests outside the park, and environmentalists say the targeted areas are wreaking maximal environmental damage...New analysis suggests the NSW government’s own logging arm is trashing the forest inside the proposed park." >>

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/the-government-promised-a-koala-national-park-then-the-loggers-moved-in-20241104-p5knro.html ($ wall)
#logging #MidNorthCoast #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #NSW #biodiversity #wildlife #koalas #loggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #destruction #FCNSW #breaches #SaveTuckersNob #subsidies #bushfires #risks #crime #violence #ResourceFrontiers #offsets #ClimateEmergency #governance

Where there’s logging, there’s fire
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/as-logging-intensifies-forest-fires-wetsuweten-fight-to-protect-old-growth/
#bushfires #loggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #BellingenLogging #NSWLogging #risks #harm #SaveTuckersNob

Bellingen 2/2

Hyde and Church St.:
Bumper-to-bumper road trains speeding through drive through town. Horizontal native forests fly by on logging trucks. Amplified 'music' tries to overpower the fossil fuel soundscape. A non-place between Paramatta Rd. and Luna Park.
In Church St. (which really is just another car park) food consumers are being polluted by car fumes. Breastfeeding parents idle in their air-conditioned SUVs.

Council updated the tidy garden beds along the road with new weeds. Indian mynas are rapidly replacing native birds.

The 'Koala shampoo for dogs' summed it all up.

#Bellingen #roads #FossilFuels #ClimateExtremes #BellingenLogging #LoggingImpacts #Bellingen #suburbia #trucks #pollution #koalas #birds #SaveTuckersNob #biodiversity

Modern forestry techniques are destroying biodiversity, poisoning communities and compounding the climate crisis

"Perversely, the use of glyphosate and other herbicides is ensured by industrial monoculture plantations around the world. Under the pretext of climate change mitigation schemes, millions of trees are planted. The plantations do provide raw materials for biofuels and act as powerful carbon sinks. But when a natural forest is converted to a plantation, a natural ecosystem is destroyed. Biodiversity is lost and organic matter and nutrient levels are depleted. In a bid to manage reduced soil fertility, forestry planners use artificial fertilizers and herbicides. Each year, 10 million hectares of natural forest are lost to monoculture plantations. The policy is not addressing climate change. It’s compounding it."

"A 2019 study showed that 80 percent of First Nations communities in Canada are located in fire-prone regions that are often isolated. But the imperatives of eco-capitalism and the commodification of nature have long taken precedence over the traditional knowledge of Indigenous communities—to our collective peril."
>>
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/canadian-forestation-policies-add-fuel-to-the-fires
#loggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #FlammableForest #plantations #pesticides #BellingenLogging #GumbaynggirrCountry #RuralNSW #MidNorthCoast #monoculture #SaveTuckersNob #pesticides #bushfires #climate #IndigenousPeoples #ClimateExtremes

"Between 2000 and 2022, NSW logged approximately 435,000 ha of native forest and woodland, all of which overlapped with the distributions of at least one threatened forest-dependent taxon."

"While logging in NSW has degraded 435,000 ha of native forest across 143 threatened taxa distributions, logging is still legal under current legislation."
>>
https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/csp2.13185
#biodiversity #ShiftingBaselines #ThreatenedSpecies #NSWLogging #FCNSW #LoggingIndustry #deforestation #degradation #harm #fires #roads #SettlerSociety #BellingenLogging #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #SaveTuckersNob #ExtinctionCrisis #EPBCAct #EUDR

Forestry Corporation of NSW has ‘a pattern’ of illegally damaging the environment, scathing judgment finds

"A court has released a scathing judgment against the New South Wales’ state-owned forest agency, finding it had “a pattern” of illegally damaging the environment and had refused to accept the “true extent of the harm that it has caused”."

"The Land and Environment Court fined the Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) $360,000 for offences related to the logging of 53 eucalyptus trees in environmentally significant forest near Eden, in the state’s south, after the black summer bushfires."

"The court accepted an EPA submission that the agency had “a pattern of environmental offending, has not provided any compelling evidence of measures taken by it to prevent its reoffending, and does not accept the true extent of harm that it has caused by its offending...Justice Rachel Pepper agreed that any penalty imposed on the Forestry Corporation “must serve to deter it from future criminality”.

“The government is ultimately responsible for the Forestry Corporation, and have a duty to protect the people and environment of NSW from this rogue state-owned corporation."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/31/forestry-corporation-of-nsw-has-a-pattern-of-illegally-damaging-the-environment-scathing-judgment-finds
#harm #LoggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #NSWlogging #FCNSW #StopLoggingKoalaHabitat #breaches #law #governance #criminality #SaveTuckersNob #BiodiversityCrisis #FCNSW #StopNativeForestLogging

#SaveTuckersNob
#GreatKoalaPark
#StopLoggingKoalaHabitat
#koalas #biodiversity
#ClimateEmergency
#Bellingen #NeverNever #river
#FCNSW #Gleniffer
3/3
>
https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/112878560742542678
https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/112878562532954829

#SaveTuckersNob
#GreatKoalaPark
#StopLoggingKoalaHabitat
#koalas #biodiversity
#ClimateEmergency
1/3 >
https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/112878560742542678

#SaveTuckersNob
#GreatKoalaPark
#StopLoggingKoalaHabitat
#koalas #biodiversity
#ClimateEmergency
#FCNSW #LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry
#BellingenLogging #destruction
2/3
https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/112878562532954829

Save Tuckers Nob forests
Save the Bellingen koala habitat.
Save the biodiversity habitat of the promised Great Koala Park.
Save the habitable climate niche.
#StopNativeForestLogging #SaveTuckersNob #BellingenLogging #NSWlogging #FCNSW #ClimateEmergency #ExtremeHeat #BiodiversityCrisis #destruction #governance #SettlerSociety #extractivism

Labor continues double-speak on forestry issues
"Amid talk of managing forestry and environmental conservation, Labor governments continue the destruction of forests across Australia."
>>
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/labor-continues-double-speak-on-forestry-issues,18770

Forest conversion and timber certification in the public plantation estate of NSW: Implications at the landscape and policy levels, (Tim Cadman et al., 2024)
>>
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2024.107179
#NativeForests #deforestation #NSWLogging #regulation #koalas #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #BellingenLogging #SaveTuckersNob #FCNSW #degradation #RemnantVegetation #conversion #ecosystem #conservation #Biodiversity #GlasgowDeclaration #ecology #ClimateAction #Law #governance #legitimacy #EUDR #SupplyChains #Australia #reputation

Unchecked tourism at Bellingen's Never Never River
Indigenous custodians embrace chance to curb tourism at 'trashed' swimming spot

"Occasional closure part of Indigenous Protected Area plan for troubled Never Never River's Promised Lands. The spot has now been declared part of an 81,000-hectare Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in the Bellingen Valley."

"There have been concerns about pollution in the Never Never River at a popular swimming spot known as the Promised Lands, near the town of Bellingen...In January 2023, water quality at the river showed concerning levels of faecal matter, with human and dog excrement the suspected source."

"It was once regarded as something of a secret spot, but coverage on social media has seen it become an increasingly popular swimming site. But as the site is not recognised as a tourist area by Forestry Corporation NSW, which manages the Crown Land, there are no public toilets or rubbish bins, and minimal parking."

"Rather than it being a free-for-all, driving up and down from sacred places, we need to give it a rest sometimes during the year."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-10/never-never-river-bellingen-indigenous-protected-area/103993356
#PromisedLand #NeverNever #rivers #Bellingen #TheDrive #ExcessiveTourism #tourism #NSW #pollution #dogs #SaveTuckersNob #GumbaynggirrCountry #GoBeforeYouGo #swimming #toilets #MidNorthCoast #platypus