The Nambucca Valley Conservation Association has raised the alarm that road works have begun in the Nambucca State Forest in preparation for logging in unburnt areas.
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"This work begins just as the Nambucca State Forest is recovering from the drought and after most of it avoided last summer's devastating bushfires," NVCA spokesperson Lyn Orrego said.
"This coastal public native forest is valued by residents for recreation, is a refuge for wildlife and provides a natural, scenic backdrop to the town of Nambucca Heads.,
"The wildlife depend on it for shelter and food including species which were threatened even before the fires, such as the Sooty Owl, Masked Owl, Powerful Owl, Grey-headed flying fox and koalas."
She said an ecologist's survey commissioned by the NVCA last week found nine Slender marsdenia plants, a threatened moist area forest vine, in an area to be logged imminently. Another rare plant, the Scrub turpentine, was also found.
"We let Forestry Corporation (FC) know so they can be protected but what else has FC failed to find? And what do the new weakened logging rules, which are being applied here for the first time in our area, fail to protect? ... lots, is the likely answer.
"But we won't know before its lost."
Ecologist Ross Macleay said it had only taken him a couple of hours in the forest to discover the Marsdenia.
"Forestry do have this plant on their maps but not in this area - it is quite vulnerable because it only exists in certain ecosystems," Mr Macleay said.
"The Scrub turpentine was quite common 10 years ago but was nearly completely annihilated by myrtle rust. It was starting to recover during the long dry period but this late wet summer has seen the rust return - I expect it will become extinct in the near future."
He said the areas marked for logging were critical habitat for many species such as the glossy balck cockatoo, which had lost so much habitat due to the fires.
"This forest is a refuge for these birds.
"We also found quite a number of koala feed trees, none of which appear on the Forestry mapping."
Responding to questions from the Guardian News a Forestry Corporation spokesperson said there were strict conditions regulating native forestry in NSW, which were developed with the input of expert scientific panels.
We are currently considering the information provided by the NVCA and once verified will modify our operations accordingly
- Forestry Corp spokesman
"Forestry operations take into account all threatened species records, and our staff implement actions under the IFOA as required.
"The Environmental Protection Authority has authorised selective harvesting in a small number of areas impacted by fire following its own independent assessments of the fire impacts in those areas and the development of additional site-specific conditions to mitigate risks in those locations."
He said timber harvesting operations take place in around one per cent of State forests each year, which is around 0.1 per cent of forested land in NSW.
"All regrowth forests that are harvested in NSW are completely regrown and will continue to provide timber products and conservation values into the future."
Related: Logging to begin in Nambucca SF
Ms Orrego said the NVCA is urging people to write short letters to Nationals MP Melinda Pavey and to NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean stating their request for the urgent protect the Nambucca State Forest for its highest values of recreation, tourism, wildlife refuge, rare fauna and flora and climate stabilisation.
"If we instead, dedicated this forest to recreation and wildlife, its areas degraded from past logging would be restored over time and we would have a rare natural asset indeed."