Yesterday the Guardian News ran a story about what many fear will be the devastating effects of changes to timber harvesting regulations for NSW's coastal forests:
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Due to timing, the story did not include comments from the NSW Environment Protection Authority.
Their response to questions sent, including links to relevant documents appear below:
1) Why have buffers in head-water streams been reduced from 10 metres to five metres?
The current Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals (IFOA) relies on very old and out of date mapping of streams. Many headwater streams are not mapped, or they are mapped in the wrong place, and in many instances this means they have no buffer.
The new stream mapping is highly accurate, and ensures a consistent 5m buffer is applied to all headwater streams, except in modelled threatened fish habitat, and in areas subject to intensive harvesting and in the Eden sub-region, where more protections are applied.
This ensures that areas of greater risk, being those subject to more intensive harvesting or where there is threatened fish habitat, have greater protection. More information can be found on the landscape factsheet, and on pages 41-43 of the online presentation
2) Why have specifications for threatened species protections been removed?
Protections have not been removed; changes have been made to try to ensure a more effective and efficient approach. More information can be found on the wildlife protection factsheet, online presentation, and multi-scale landscape protections factsheet.
3) Why has the need to look for and protect koalas prior to logging been removed?
The new approach is informed by the latest science and up-to-date mapping of the distribution of koalas and their habitat. The existing koala provisions were not working, including difficulties with enforcement.
Further information can be found in the koala case study
4) Why is there a need to establish a 140,000 ha intensive clearfell area between Grafton and Taree?
The new IFOA proposes an intensive harvesting zone in 140,000 ha of state forest between Taree and Grafton. The new IFOA places significant controls on intensive harvesting.
It is important to recognise that wildlife and tree protection clumps, and habitat trees and seed trees will still be protected in intensive harvesting – it is not clearfelling.
More information on the history of intensive harvesting can be found in the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) reports, and also the timber harvesting factsheet.
In answer to the question about why the overall amount of timber taken from public native forests is to be increased by 59,300 cubic metres, the spokeswoman said that wood supply decisions were not part of the IFOA.
And on the matter of 2014 NSW Government promises not to increase supply quotas or erode environmental values, she referred readers to the NRC reports, ‘which set out how this is achieved’.
* Interested residents are reminded there will be a free public meeting about the changes to native forest logging from 6pm tomorrow, Thursday, at the Nambucca Entertainment Centre.