Red Gum Mismanagement Exposed For All To See

RED GUM MISMANAGEMENT EXPOSED FOR ALL TO SEE

The recent Natural Resources Commission report on River Red Gum has exposed one of the most appalling episodes of environmental mismanagement in modern Australia, according to the National Parks Association of NSW.

"The report found that the number of Red Gum trees that have been logged each year in the Riverina over the last two decades is four times the sustainable level" said Ms Carmel Flint, spokesperson for the National Parks Association of NSW.

"While the Red Gum forests have been dying, Forests NSW have been logging them as fast as they can to get as much wood out as possible.

"It has been `worst practice' forest management in fragile ecosystems that are globally significant.

"Forests NSW have failed dramatically in their role as forest managers. They have been captured by the logging industry and have spectacularly botched the most basic task of assessing and constraining wood supply to sustainable levels.

"Instead of regulating forest use they have merely capitulated to the demands of the logging industry.

"This is a national disgrace. It is the worst and most blatant case of over-logging in modern Australia.

"The River Red Gum forests have paid a terrible price for the failures of Forests NSW.

"Irreparable environmental damage has been done and Forests NSW should have no future role in the management of these areas as they clearly cannot be trusted" Ms Flint said.


Quotes from the Natural Resources Commission Report

"The sustainable wood yields are simply not there to sustain the current scale of the sawmill industry,
and have not been there for some decades."

"Forest growth rates have been in long-term decline but quotas have not been revised down (other than for forests on the Murrumbidgee River)."

"Long-term sustainable yields of quota and ex-quota sawlogs are expected to be reduced by up to 70 per cent due to the combined effects of river regulation, enhanced forest management prescriptions, the current drought and climate change".

For more information or comment,
contact Carmel Flint
on 0400521474.

Head Office:
PO Box 337,
Newtown NSW 2042
Ph 02 9299 0000
Fax 02 9290 2525
[email protected]
www.npansw.org.au

SOURCE: National Parks Association of NSW