Protesters halt logging at Wild Cattle Creek, scene of alleged breaches

Four logging machines purportedly immobilised in same forest implicated in looming Land and Environment Court battle

Protesters halt logging near Coffs Harbour at Wild Cattle Creek state forest on Tuesday May 15. The demonstration occured in the same forest in which Forestry Corporation was issued a stop work order after the destruction of two giant trees.

Protesters have put a temporary stop to logging in forest which was the scene of alleged breaches by Forestry Corporation.

On Tuesday morning Newry Native Forest Blockage issued a statement claiming a protester in a tree-sit had immobilised four logging machines in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest, putting a temporary stop to work.

The group demanded native forests are protected from logging, especially after the widespread destruction during the 2019/20 bushfire season.

“Our community has suffered enough from the black summer bushfires. It is unthinkable that native forest logging would continue as business-as-usual after such widespread habitat loss across the state,” they said.

“The NSW Government’s koala inquiry showed that habitat loss was the biggest threat to the survival of koalas and yet logging continues.”

The NSW Environment Protection Authority has issued Forestry Corporation of NSW with a Stop Work Order to cease tree harvesting at Wild Cattle Creek State Forest inland from Coffs Harbour. One of the two trees designated as giant trees felled in the Wild Cattle Creek State Forest

The action comes as the Environmental Protection Authority pursues five prosecutions against Forestry Corporation NSW over alleged breaches of their in the same state forest.

FCNSW are alleged to have felled trees and operated snig tracks in a koala protection zone and the EPA began the prosecutions in October last year.

Previously, FCNSW hasn’t commented on the prosecution while it was before the courts but noted they had set aside more than three times the koala habitat required during the operation, “protecting an additional 6,000 trees”.

FCNSW also stated they carried out a “thorough investigation” into the circumstances that led to the alleged offences”.

The EPA had earlier issued a stop work order at Wild Cattle Creek after inspectors found “serious” alleged breaches which included the allege felling of “two old, giant trees”.

The Wild Cattle Creek state forest is within the proposed Great Koala National Park that has the backing of members of the community, conservation groups and some politicians.

The planned park would add about 175,000ha of state forests to existing protected areas to form a 315,000ha reserve in an effort to rejuvenate the state’s dwindling koala population.

However, the plan has proved divisive. Conservationists hail the plan as a necessary step toward protecting the koala, while those in the logging industry believe it will cost jobs.