A South Coast conservation group will take its fight to stop logging in the environmentally sensitive Shallow Crossing Forest to state parliament.
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The Brooman State Forest Conservation Group (BSFCG) has launched a petition to end the logging of almost 2000 hectares of forest south of Ulladulla, which was devastated by the 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires.
The continued logging of forests has sparked outrage from residents after a Natural Resources Commission (NRC) report was leaked last year and deemed logging in the Batemans Bay and Ulladulla area "high-risk".
Brooman resident and BSFCG member, Takesa Frank, said residents have been fighting against the logging, which resumed three months after the Currowan bushfires, for two years, but aren't ready to give up any time soon.
"Everyone in the forest has gotten tired from fighting this over and over again, because it can sometimes feel like a losing battle," said Ms Frank.
"But we've watched our home be destroyed by the fires, and now we're watching it get destroyed again because of the logging.
"This is something we can prevent. If we take all the forests away, no one's going to want to come visit here.
"That's going to have an impact on businesses that have like suffered so much the past few years because of bushfires and COVID.
"Now they're facing potentially further loss from logging and the impact it's having on the environment."
Disputes between Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW) and the Environment Protection Authority led to the NSW Government commissioning a review of bushfire affected logging rules by the NRC.
The report stated logging should have been suspended for three years in the "extreme-risk" areas of Nowra, Narooma, and Taree from February 2020, when bushfires ravaged those regions.
It also revealed forests in the Batemans Management Area, including Shallow Crossing, are "high-risk" for ecological damage and 75 per cent of the landscape should remain protected.
Despite being impacted by bushfires, FCNSW has continued to log in these regions.
A spokesperson from FCNSW said additional environmental safeguards have been implemented for fire-affected South Coast logging areas.
"These additional safeguards include carrying out extra flora and fauna ecology and soil surveys, retaining greater numbers of habitat trees and establishing larger buffers on environmental protection zones," the spokesperson said in a statement to the South Coast Register.
"Forestry Corporation reduced operations on the south coast to around a third of the normal rate over the past two years and introduced substantial additional environmental safeguards over and above the already strict rules regulating native forestry."
The FCNSW said it has worked to strike a balance between environmental considerations, supporting South Coast jobs and supplying renewable timber products to businesses.
Ms Frank disputes there is economic gain from logging following a report FCNSW report for 2020/21 that revealed a $20 million loss in the forestry industry.
"They're not making any money from logging and we as taxpayers, are actually subsidizing that loss," she said.
"Not only is like logging really bad for the environment and the community, but it's also not economically sustainable."
Ms Frank argued state forests can generate far more income through their protection through tourism and carbon abatement.
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