Save our River Red Gums

The stunningly beautiful river red gum Forests of New South Wales are under immediate threat from logging, over grazing and reduced water flow.

Located in the Riverina region, the river red gum Forests are home to many threatened and endangered plants and animals, contain wetlands listed as internationally significant under the Ramsar convention and form a cultural landscape of vast importance to the Indigenous nations of the area.

The forests include the inspiring Barmah-Millewa forest. Covering approximately 66,000 hectares, this is the largest river red gum forest left anywhere in the world – it is referred to as the ‘Kakadu of the South’.

The forests are home to many threatened species, including the Superb Parrot and Regent Parrot, the Brush-tailed Phascogale, and the Inland Carpet Python. They are ephemeral wetlands – they rely upon seasonal flooding to remain healthy – and during big floods the whole floodplain will become a part of the river. River regulation has meant that these floods have not been occurring and in some places up to 75% of the river red gums are stressed, dead or dying.

Despite the region being recognised as one of international importance, the NSW government has allowed logging in the forests without conducting an approved environmental assessment process and allows patch clear felling in the forests. Amazingly, up to 95% of the timber logged along the Murray River is used for low value products such as firewood, fence posts and railway sleepers. Much of this is taken across the border and sold in Victoria - 80% of firewood sold in Victoria is red gum.

The Wilderness Society is consulting with traditional landowners in the region, who have long campaigned for the right to manage and protect their country and is campaigning to see new national parks created in the forests. New national parks will:

• Create world’s best-practice indigenous protected areas comprising large, Aboriginal-owned National Parks.
• Help NSW meet basic reserve targets, protect threatened species and ensure the survival of internationally important wetland ecosystems.
• Bringing the River Red Gum Forests of NSW in line with environmental standards of threatened species and environment protection licensing across the State.
• Provide a vegetation corridor across the state to allow wildlife to adapt to climate change.

In Victoria, the Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC) has recommended that the State Government establish five new National Parks, reduce logging by 70 per cent, phase out grazing, and pump water down the Murray, in a plan to protect Victoria’s River Red Gum Forests. The Wilderness Society is asking the New South Wales State Government to show similar leadership on this issue.

There are currently no national parks on the NSW side of the border and logging is occurring within the forests. The NSW government needs to commit to a rapid reserve assessment process, in consultation with the traditional owners of the area, to produce national parks in the region.