The North Coast Environment Council (NCEC) said it did not think any good would come from a trial of new timber industry environmental regulations. Source: ABC News
The rules aim to simplify environmental protections around logging operations. They will be trialled for three months in forests between Bulahdelah and Macksville.
The Forestry Corporation said it hopes the regulations will be easier to obey and enforce. But NCEC spokeswoman Susie Russell said the process seems to be solely aimed at intensifying logging and cutting costs.
“What this so called trial is going to do is open the way for more intensive logging in coastal forests with less supervision and without doing pre logging surveys for threatened species,” she said.
“So we are concerned that threatened species will not be identified.” Ms Russell said the public should be very concerned.
“We’re concerned that the trial is not in anyway any kind of rigorous science,” she said.
“We don’t think they have provided information about where it’s going to happen, we don’t have information about what’s being trialled.
“We think the Minister has perhaps underestimated the area that is going to be affected.”
