Hope for Whian Whian State Forest
By Zanny Begg
Logging in compartment 65, part of the Whian Whian State Forest, may halt after evidence has been produced that logging is damaging rainforest areas Garrick Martin from the Rainforest Information Centre told Green Left Weekly. The crowns of the trees being clear-felled are falling into rainforest areas, in violation of the Forestry Act.
The campaign to save Whian Whian hopes to take this information to the State Forestry Commission to encourage it to stop logging in the area. If this fails, Martin says they intend to take the matter to court.
Legal action may force companies to stop logging into the rainforest, but as Martin points out, this is only a reprieve and will not stop the "juggernaut of forest destruction".
The aim of the campaign is to stop logging altogether in Whian Whian State Forest. Whian Whian was clear-felled in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Rainforest Information Centre believes that it should not be felled again.
Whian Whian is near Lismore, just outside the Nightcap National Park. The Nulungar Lands Council has declared the area of cultural significance to Koori people, and conservationists claim it has high conservation value. The region is also an important water catchment for Lismore.
There are five logging contractors operating in the region. The wholesale logging that is going on, Martin believes, will make "state forest into plantations" as more and more older trees are felled and new ones, which cannot support wildlife, are planted instead.
Martin says that the campaign will continue to try to push on "little things" in an attempt to slow down logging.