Threatened species found in Doubleduke

A yellow-bellied glider.Photo by J. Seebeck

The North East Forest Alliance has called on NSW Environment Minister Frank Sartor to stop a logging operation in Doubleduke State Forest near Coraki after discovering what they believe are serious breaches to the licence conditions.

NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said he and a team of biologists and zoologists visited the area last weekend and found Forests NSW were logging without first identifying and marking the trees and areas required to be protected for threatened species, as specifically required by the Threatened Species Licence.

“Before logging operations commence, trained experts are required to first do searches for dens, roosts and nests of an array of threatened animals such as the Barking Owl, Masked Owl, Powerful Owl, Glossy-black Cockatoo, Koala, Yellow-bellied Glider, Brush-tailed Phascogale and Tiger Quoll, as well as identifying localities of threatened plants,” Dailan said. “In this process they are meant to mark any such special features to protect them from logging, and also to mark minimum numbers of large old hollow-bearing trees and feed trees for retention.”

The NEFA team found that roading had been undertaken, a log dump constructed and logging was well under way without any of the required trees and special features having been marked.

“This means the required surveys had not been done,” Dailan said.

He has written to both Mr Sartor and the new Forests Minister Paul McLeay and spoken to various advisers and compliance officers about the breaches and the NEFA team are in the process of compiling a detailed report of what they found.

The area surveyed was about six hectares.

“Minister Sartor must act immediately to stop all logging in Doubleduke State Forest until Forests NSW fully comply with their Threatened

Species Licence. He also must ensure that they don’t get away with another slap on the wrist and are prosecuted this time,” Dailan said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Climate Change said they were investigating the matter.