CONSERVATIONISTS around the shire have welcomed NSW opposition leader Luke Foley's January 20 announcement that if elected he would create a 315,000 hectare Great Koala National Park on the Mid North Coast.
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President of the Nambucca Valley Conservation Association Inc, Georgette Allen, said she and her colleagues were happy with the idea of the park, which would cover publicly-owned forests between the Macleay River and Woolgoolga, including the upper catchment of the Nambucca Valley.
“If declared, this park would protect dwindling remnant koala populations and their habitat, whilst providing enormous opportunity for tourism and local employment,” Ms Allen said.
“The park would also offer the wonderful benefit of stabilising forestry extractions. It would put an end to tree removal in areas most needed by koalas.”
However National’s candidate for Oxley, Melinda Pavey, said the plan would not only destroy regional economies through job losses (the timber industry estimate is 3000 jobs), but would also do nothing to help the koala populations.
“Wildfire, chlamydia and wild dogs pose a larger threat to koalas,” Ms Pavey said.
“We need sensible discussion about how to address those issues.”
She said the park would have a devastating impact on a number of timber mills in the area and the “hundreds of decent people, employed there”.
“Timber harvesting is already excluded from areas where koalas live in State Forests and the industry has a code of practice which ensures a comprehensive approach for the effective management of koalas and their habitat.”
Ms Allen said that if left to grow, the forests would contribute to carbon storage and uptake and that the $2.55 billion set aside by the Federal Government for carbon storage actions could be used to help timber workers.
“This money could be used constructively to help workers re-locate or re-train into sustainable jobs such as park management, eco-tourism and land rehabilitation,” she said.
Nambucca Shire councillor Paula Flack said the park had the potential to offer a major economic boost to the region.
“The panda reserves in China are hugely popular and with the airport at Coffs Harbour, there is enormous tourism potential,” Cr Flack said.
She said the timber industry still had access to its resource on private land and that timber supplies on public land were “already miniscule and dwindling”.
Mr Foley’s proposal would add about 176,000ha of state forest to the existing 140,000ha local National Park estate.
He noted that last year the NSW Government bought back 50,000 cubic metres of native forest allocation on the north coast, which could be turned into reserves.
