The race is on to salvage as much usable timber as possible following widespread bushfires across the South East.
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However, not everyone is happy about the push, with conservationist groups such as South East Region Conservation Alliance calling for an immediate halt to all logging in fire-damaged areas to allow recovery of flora and fauna.
"It is simply environmental madness to think you can wave a magic wand and expect anything like 'business as usual'," spokeswoman and deputy convener of SERCA Harriett Swift said.
As was reported last week, the Eden Forest Management Area has been the hardest hit in the state, with aerial assessments showing about 80 per cent of the management area affected by the bushfires.
NSW Forestry Corporation said over 850,000 hectares of state forests in NSW have been impacted by fire.
"[But] because an area has burnt, it doesn't mean that logs are not recoverable," chair of a south-east timber industry recovery sub-committee Robyn Bain said.
NSW Labor held its shadow cabinet meeting in Tumut last week and called on Premier Gladys Berejiklian to take immediate action to assist the industry, including appointing a Forestry Recovery Commissioner, committing to replanting plantations and abandoning plans to privatise the state-owned Forestry Corporation.
NSW Labor spokesman for Natural Resources Paul Scully said the government needed to take privatisation off the table, "now and for good".
"It is probably the greatest uncertainty facing forestry in this region," Mr Scully said.
One of the other options being floated is to allow contractors access to fallen and damaged timber within national parks.
However, according to Ms Swift, the focus should be on recovery of the environment.
"Paper manufacturers cannot accept any logs containing charcoal, so the owners are now looking for ways to make money from surviving trees which do contain charcoal," she said.
"Government is now dreaming up new ways to use the burnt trees, such as turning them into briquettes and exporting them for heating.
"To convert a living tree, albeit a burnt one into briquettes for burning is madness.
"The priority right now should be to make sure that any surviving animals have access to food and water," Ms Swift said.