There was a huge outpouring of grief and frustration when council first removed our trees, including those that had been deemed healthy and at only 50 per cent of their life span. 

After extensive pressure for better consultation, our Friends of Littleton Gardens was able to hold ongoing communications with general manager Leanne Barnes and then Mayor Bill Taylor and the talks seemed to be heading in the right direction.

But the removal of community assets without explanation or warning, let alone consultation, has continued - the shady trees in the car park behind Candelo Wholefoods were removed, the vegetation around Kisses Lagoon was mowed down, the future of Eden’s Australasia Hotel continues to hang in the balance and now we are to lose the last tree in our eyesore “park”.

People I’ve spoken to all express dislike for the utterly bland, featureless flat landscape that offers no protection from wind or sun or rain. 

They feel excluded from the decisions about what we could have had. 

We have ended up with a generic lawn and Manchurian pears, complete with broken drinking fountain and broken stumps, that could be anywhere in Australia, Europe or Asia. 

It’s a space that no longer invites us to linger, to rest, to take time out, to listen to the native birds. 

The original park wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot more enjoyable than what’s there now.

Jo Dodds

Bega

Letters to the editor are designed to stimulate discussion and debate and Peter Hendy's letter (BDN, 18/8) appears to have been provided with ample support by the editor for this to occur. 

In the past Peter Hendy has been allowed to trumpet the planting of 40,000 trees in the Bega Valley, by turning dairy farms back into forests, without any concern about damaging or destroying the viability and expansion of Bega Cheese and its work force. 

We need to produce more food not less. 

There is no mention of tree planting in the Queanbeyan area, his normal place of abode.

But in his letter, we have an explanation from the Prime Minister's office regarding the Free Trade Agreement with China, with a back-handed abusive complaint, against those that question the Prime Minister's judgement.

I believe that the Australian public should be made aware that due to the incompetence of Tony Abbott and his government. 

The Australian Armed Forces have to rely on overseas countries for all their needs, from boots, uniforms, arms, all military transport, trucks, armoured vehicles, tanks, ammunition, aircraft, and it looks like the new submarine. 

All is purchased from overseas nothing is manufactured in Australia. 

No-one in his right mind can say that this is about creating jobs and growth or protecting the security of Australia.

Ivor G Williams

Pambula

The latest logging of Nullica State Forest (BDN, 28/8) has been defended by the Forestry Corporation, with comments such as:

1. It will generate "high quality sawlogs ultimately to be made into products like timber flooring, decking and general housing construction and pulpwood to be used for manufacturing high quality printing paper." 

Fact: 80 per cent of trees will go directly to the Eden chipmill (source: Forestry Corp Harvest Plan). 

Of the rest, at least half will end up at the chipmill via a sawmill, which makes this is a fairly typical Eden operation, with a 90-plus per cent yield of woodchips.

2. The "NSW timber industry adds around $2.4billion value to the economy each year and directly employs thousands of people." 

Fact: The Forestry Corporation loses on average $14million a year on native forest logging (source: Forestry Corporation Annual Reports). 

The more it logs the more it costs NSW taxpayers.

3. “Native forest operations in NSW are among the most highly regulated and tightly audited in the world." 

Fact: Last year, the regulatory framework was described in an official document as a “failure.” 

In announcing that logging rules would be revised, it admitted the government had no idea whether the rules have protected wildlife. 

It also acknowledged that its rules are not even enforceable. 

Further, under S. 69ZA of the Forestry Act 2012, no private citizen can launch a prosecution for a breach of logging rules.

For 15 years, only another government agency has been able to do this.

The Forestry spokesperson failed to mention the 13 threatened species (11 fauna, two flora) recorded in this part of Nullica Forest.

One of these is the nationally endangered spotted tail quoll. 

There will be no meaningful protection for the quoll.

We have not heard the last of this!

Harriett Swift

Bega