A campaign is growing to attempt to prevent the logging of a forest just north of Bermagui, and near the popular holiday destination of Mystery Bay, and the culturally significant Gulaga National Park.
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Merrimans Local Aboriginal Land Council chair Ken Campbell said on Monday he will meet with CEO Terry Hill and Narooma land council on Tuesday about the logging of Corunna State Forest.
I’m horrified that we’re still making mistakes when it comes to the environment.
- Tuross Head campaigner Pearl Cavander-Cole
“I don’t like the logging one bit,” Mr Campbell said.
In a September approved harvest plan, Forestry Corporation of NSW said mature trees will be removed “to create canopy openings” in order to create “canopy space for the advanced regrowth to grow on into future sawlogs”.
The plan states logged trees will be made into wooden poles, piles and girders, while damaged trees may become pulp and firewood.
The Corunna Forest Protection Group was formed earlier this year in response to the government’s announcement it would harvest 130 hectares of the forest. An online petition to stop the logging has over 3500 signatures.
“The operation is a single tree selection meaning that within this 130 hectares, only certain trees will be harvested and a large portion of the harvest area will be set aside for conservation,” Forestry Corp said in February.
Pearl Cavander-Cole travelled from her home in Tuross Head for a protest in Bega on Friday outside Bega MP Andrew Constance’s electorate office.
“I’ve lived in Queensland and now in NSW, and I’m horrified that we’re still making mistakes when it comes to the environment,” she said.
“It’s absolutely urgent we act now because we have very little time to make things right.”
She said the government has an opportunity to support the growing movement of citizen science around forest management.
Conservation campaigner Andrew North claimed trees over 100 years old have been harvested ahead of a meeting between the community and Mr Constance on October 21.
Mr North said campaigners are calling for a stop to any logging inside the forest until the meeting.