Ya want Koala chips with that, Ms Parker? Whaddaya mean hold the quoll paste?

Media Release - Opinion - Environment updated
28 October 2011

Ya Want Koala Chips with That Ms Parker? Whaddaya mean hold the Quoll Paste?

By now everyone knows of NSW Minister for Environment and Heritage, Robyn Parker's Budget Estimates Committee alleged gaffe on Thursday 27 October 2011 that koalas are 'protected by logging'.

The "Logging saves Biodiversity" line is not unfamiliar. Forests NSW has run similar arguments frequently for decades. Take a look at this story they ran on ABC radio 6 days ago:

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/10/17/3341453.htm

Whether Parker was misquoted or not the incident has exposed typical Forests NSW spin to public ridicule. The claim that Forests NSW are staunch guardians of endangered species, of biodiversity, of carbon, of soil, and that koalas thrive under their management is obviously foolish.

The idea that koalas, which have 20 sq km territories, can sense the borders between State Forest and National Park is obviously erroneous. However they can tell that there are fewer trees in the former and that they are under pressure to live closer together in less space with fewer habitat trees.

It seems insane that Forests NSW would ever cut koala habitat species. There are over 280 eucalypt species that koalas do not eat and only ten that they do. The numbers of koalas in the Bega Valley region, for example, have dwindled from millions to fewer than 50 in less than a hundred years of government fostered hunting, mining and logging.

There are more thylacenes than koalas in parts of south eastern Australia, thanks to Forests NSW and woodchip mill at Eden's hunger for logs.

Given the ruthless and mechanised processes of logging (displayed so well in "The Hunter" movie) and the fact that the only jobs in logging are bulldozing the crowns and butts of trees into heaps. The trunks of whole healthy mature trees are the only 'waste' that a Japanese woodchip mill will process.

It is a testimony to extinction not care that more koala blood isn't found in the SEFE chipper at Eden.

The genetic differences between remaining colonies and the unique biodiversity of regions are being disregarded. Koala management fiascos like the inbreeding at Kangaroo Island are also worrying.

Yet Parker (and the previous government) have claimed that logging is sustainable and environmentally sensitive. A very long and detailed list of unprosecuted breaches of environmental protection regulation (such as it is) would indicate otherwise.

Forests NSW destroys native forest yet runs at a loss. Why? To protect a dubious foreign owned export industry while there is already sufficient plantation timber to take over. Moreover, neanderthals driving those logging trucks and bulldozers are close to unemployable in any other industry. Many push their salaries across the bar at the local pub and little else.

Anyway there's plenty more spin where the koala story came from. Stay tuned.

Ending native forest logging is the only answer.

Jane Salmon
upstream2005 at yahoo. com.au

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