Mr Nunn who lives at Tuross Head and works for Pentarch Forestry said it was a win for workers who often had an unfairly negative reputation.

"Harvesting crews actually care way more about nature than most people believe," he said.

"We aren't trying to rape and pillage the earth."

His comments come following the NSW Government's rejection of an online petition which amassed more than 20,000 signatures calling for an end to the logging of state forests.

Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders responded to the petition on September 13.

"While 20,000 signatures represent a lot of people, the NSW government must balance the interests of more than seven million citizens in its management of public assets, such as our state forests," Mr Saunders said.

"The NSW Government disagrees with each of the above proposals [in the petition] and continues to support the sustainable management of our forests in NSW.

"This includes plantation and native forests."

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Mr Saunders said 22,000 people were employed in the forestry industry.

"Well-managed forests also create jobs," he said.

Mr Nunn has been working at Pentarch for four years, and is now the fitter, machinist and welder, currently completing his Certificate III mechanical engineering apprenticeship.

If he doesn't complete his training at the company, he would have to relocate - probably to the mining industry in central NSW.

He said the NSW government's decision was "awesome".

Mr Nunn entered the timber industry because it offered the full time, secure work he needed to support his four children and partner.

The former chef had previously been commuting all over the shire to balance three part-time jobs.

"The work is a full time job - which was hard to get on the South Coast," he said.

He said the employment opportunities at Pentarch were crucial to Eurobodalla residents who worked there.

"We are all local, so it's important for us to keep our jobs and keep our families in the area," he said.

Mr Nunn's colleagues include a man in his 60s who has worked at the company for more than 30 years and has never done anything else. Another worker learnt his trade while in jail, and has never been accepted for work elsewhere. He, too, relies on logging to support his young family.

"The opportunities we provide is the stories people should be hearing and listening to, but they aren't getting out there," Mr Nunn said.

He said stereotypes and negative suggestions made about forestry workers were frustrating.

Mr Nunn's dream is to raise his children in the beautiful Eurobodalla shire he loves.

"We have the beach and the forest - it's an awesome place to live," he said.

He often takes his children out for Sunday adventures to lookouts, picnics in the forest, or to the beach, and utterly rejects the stereotype that people who work in forestry hate nature.

"I know that a well-managed hardwood industry means the outdoors we moved here for will be here for a long time to come," he said.

He said timber workers were in a sustainable industry, and wanted it to be increasingly more sustainable.

"We want to be a part of the solution," he said. "We need a future.

"We need to work with government more often so we can better sustain and manage it."

However, Mr Nunn accepted there were instances where timber workers had not followed the rules - such as the string of recent Forestry Corporation fines along the south coast.

"One worker doing the wrong thing makes us all look bad," he said.

"If we need to reeducate them, then let's do that."

Mr Nunn doesn't know what he would do if the industry was shut down. Just the thought overwhelms him with emotion.

"It would hurt," he said. "Raising our kids here is my dream."

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