Friends of Kiwarrak seek suspension of logging in Kiwarrak State Forest

The meeting, hosted by Friends of Kiwarrak, was held on Tuesday, October 17 to inform interested community members on what Forestry Corporation's plans were for logging, to generate discussion and discuss community action to be taken going foward.

The meeting heard from member of Friends of Kiwarrak, Clare Rourke; Paul McLeod from Koalas in Care, MidCoast councillor Dheera Smith, mountain bike rider Jim Rourke, and environmental activist Susie Russell.

The Forestry Corporation were not present at the meeting, however, they had met with Friends of Kiwarrak the week before for a look through the forest and to explain what they had planned and answer questions.

Related: Koalas creep closer to extinction

Much of the community's concerns at the public meeting focused on the health and recovery of the forest post Black Summer bushfires, the forest's koala populations, and the potential for logging operations to cause increased risk of bushfires.

Paul McLeod was it was "purely absurd" that Forestry planned to log in Kiwarrak State Forest (SF).

"It's nearly three years to the day where we started burning in hell here. To have a proposal like this in front of us we think is absolutely absurd. The forest hasn't even started to recover. There are mature trees in there that have been lost.

"I find it quite absurd that Forestry have got this notion that it has recovered."

Clare Rourke said that ecological surveys had been done, but that the numbers of koalas had reduced in Kiwarrak SF by 50 to 80 per cent since the fires, and "koalas move through landscape all the time". Since the fires, koalas have also been declared an endangered species.

She also questioned why, when Kiwarrak SF is part of the Kiwarrak ARKS (area of regional koala significance), making it a koala hub, wasn't it going to be protected the same way the koala hubs on the north coast were going to be as part of the plans for a Great Koala National Park.

The two proposals put forward at the meeting for a vote were:

Suspend logging in Kiwarrak SF immediately; and

Commence application to re-designate the Kiwarrak SF to a regional park or something similar (but not a national park) to protect the forest's flora and fauna, and to preserve the use of the forest for the community for recreational activities, and to discontinue the use of the forest for logging and any other extractive activity.

The proposal states the application would be undertaken in with Biripi traditional custodians, and to seek the participation of community stakeholders, and support from local and NSW government agencies in the formulation of the application and plans for redesignation of the forest.

The proposals were accepted unanimously.

Logging was originally slated to start in early November. However, the Forestry Corporation's planning portal has recently been updated with a new starting date in March 2024.

To keep up to date with Friends of Kiwarrak visit their Facebook page.

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