Earlier this year, the Federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, gave approval certain areas to be logged within Murray Valley National Park in NSW over the next five years – the first time such logging has been approved in such a highly protected Australian forest.
A felled river red gum in Millewa Forest.
Despite concerns voiced by various environmental groups, the logging trial has recently begun, with Friends of the Earth Australia (FoE) activists documenting the proceedings at one plot in the Millewa Forest.
“These pictures confirm that so-called ‘ecological thinning’ is just a foot in the door for logging in New South Wales’ National Parks,” said FoE’s River Country Campaign coordinator Morgana Russell.
“The mechanical harvesting machinery, log trucks, timber stockpiles and devastated understorey vegetation speak for themselves. This is logging by stealth,” she said.
River red gums in the Murray Valley National Park are part of a Ramsar-listed wetland, achieving their highly protected status in 2010.
The tree-felling initiative is claimed to be scientific, with the NSW government citing the risk to these trees during extended drought periods, but environmentalists say there would be no risk to the trees if their sources of water weren’t being compromised by industry and agriculture.
“The science on red gum forest health tells us that water is the key to their survival. Over-extraction of water for irrigation, river regulation and lack of adequate environmental flows are the drivers of declining health in these forests. Logging is not a viable or sustainable solution to address these problems. Logging in National Parks simply appeases interest groups at a cost to all Australians and our environment,” said Russell.