Over the Easter long weekend, about a dozen people from SEAN headed down to NSW’s South-East native forests to check out the crazy logging that’s currently happening – thanks to our gracious hosts from South-East Forest Rescue. In the forest at Mumbulla, the NSW government has approved logging in the same area as the last koala colony in NSW. If this colony is ever going to expand, they’re going to need some old-growth forest to move into! There are heaps of problems beyond koalas, including water (logging is happening in the catchment that feeds drinking water supplies, as well as rivers where oyster farming is happening, and both will now be threatened by increased runoff and sedimentation).
Most of these native trees (an average of 90%) will be turned into woodchips, shipped to Japan, and turned into paper. Even worse, the NSW government is now planning to build a biomass power station that will run off woodchips – disastrous!
Burning our native forests seems like a pretty bad idea, so people from SEAN will be going back to the South-East forests soon. Even better, we can give you a lift down! Email sean@localhost/asen.org.au_inital_hacked_version_2014-05-02 if you’re interested.
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