NSW Government action needed on Red Gums

Click on image to learn more about Australia's vital River Red Gum forests.

Thousands of people across NSW and the rest of Australia have written to the NSW government over the past month, demanding it take action to protect the River Red Gum Forests of the Murray region. Now, two new reports show that the logging is both uneconomic and in some areas, illegal.

A report from the National Parks Association of NSW has shown that Forestry NSW is unlawfully logging close to five thousand hectares of Ramsar listed wetlands – wetlands of international significance – and habitat for the threatened superb parrot, without any assessment as required under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. As much as five football fields of forest has been logged illegally every day for the past five years.

Meanwhile, a damning report from 'Economists at Large' shows that the value of the red gum timber industry in State forests has been significantly overstated by government and that the industry is probably costing tax payers money. The report shows that the region would be much better served by the creation of new national parks, which could result in over $100 million in new economic activity for the region – five times the value of the State forest timber industry. Download 'Economists at Large' report >>

It’s time for the NSW Premier, Nathan Rees, to end this destructive, illegal and costly industry.

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