Red Gum Protection - but logging to continue in key areas

New National Parks will protect the internationally significant values of these wetland forests. Photo: R Jung

Following a three year campaign by the Wilderness Society, the NSW government has recently announced a series of new protected areas over the internationally significant Murray River Red Gum Forests, however, the fight to save these Australian icons is not yet over.

The NSW Government has announced the creation of over 100,000 hectares of new protected areas, yet intends to allow logging to continue for five years in some of the most vital parts of the Forests.

‘Transition logging’ will continue in approximately half of Millewa Forest, which is the largest River Red Gum Forests and no plans have been made to reserve any of the Koondrook-Perricoota-Campbells Island group – which is the second largest.

The announcement was met with widespread condemnation by conservationists as it overturns a previous commitment to protect all of Millewa Forest in National Park and ignores the recommendations made by government’s own peak scientific body, the NSW Natural Resources Commission, which had recommended all of Millewa Forest be placed in National Park.

The River Red Gum Forests are alluvial wetlands – during flood events, the forests are unidated and become a part of the river. However, the entirety of the regions forests are in an extreme crisis, with over 75% of trees stressed, dead or dying in some areas, due to a lack of water. The area left unprotected in Millewa Forest is among the easiest to get water to, meaning that it has one of the best chances of survival.

The area is also one of the few that has not been extensively logged in the past 10 years. This is significant as it means that it has never been subjected to patch clearfelling, a logging technique that has devastated many other areas. This area has many other well recognised conservation values – it is listed internationally as a significant site under the Ramsar Convention, is a Living Murray Icon and provides likely habitat for at least 13 threatened species. Millewa was described as the ‘jewel in the conservation crown’ by former NSW Premier Nathan Rees, when he declared a National Park over it – a decision that Premier Keneally has gone back on.

We believe that the Millewa State Forest will be almost completely logged out at the volumes proposed.  The intensity of logging proposed is five times the rate of logging that has been occurring in Victoria Red Gum forests over the last 20 years, simply unacceptable when the majority will be used for firewood.

Further reading:

Carr push to save red gums
The Australian   |   10 March, 2010
FORMER NSW premier Bob Carr will today launch a national protest against the NSW Labor government's proposal to allow logging of the giant river red gums, in southwest NSW, until 2015. Read more >>