Police on site as conservationists brace for logging at Pine Creek

Anti-logging campaigners are preparing for “direct” action to protect areas of Pine Creek State Forest (SF) in the Bellingen Shire, where a logging operation has started.

As of Tuesday lunchtime, as empty log transporters arrived in the forest, four police cars were on site to avoid potential clashes between conservationists and timber harvesters.

By early afternoon, one forest campaigner had begun a “tree sit” in a tall tree to delay proceedings.

The campaign to protect the forest has spanned years, led by members of local environment groups, who argue it offers critical connectivity for native animals - including koalas - between Bindarri National Park in the north and Bongil Bongil National Park to the south.

What will be logged?: The forest areas in question are designated as “plantation”, meaning the trees were planted to be harvested.

A spokesperson for Forestry Corporation of NSW told the Mid North Coaster the current logging operation “includes both final clearfall and thinning”.

Species targeted will include blackbutt, flooded gum, blue gum and eucalyptus dunnii.

Plantation or habitat: Formerly dairy farms, the plantations within Pine Creek SF were planted by a private company between the 1960s and 1980s. 

Some plantation compartments - a unit of measurement in forestry - within Pine Creek SF are not included in the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) proposal and are not subject to the moratorium on logging within its boundaries.

Whilst officially designated as plantation, campaigners argue certain areas have not been logged for decades and are now home to diverse forests including mature koala feed trees.

Koala protection: Forest Ecology Alliance spokesperson Deanna Markovina said the area contained “remnant and regrowth forest” featuring a range of koala feed trees including gum and tallowwood. 

• “There's certainly a lot of food source in there for (koalas); that's exactly why they're going there and staying there.” 

Forest blockade: Over the weekend, people from across the region gathered at a “Blockade Camp” near the state forest’s entrance to learn “non-violent” techniques to halt logging proceedings.

These techniques often include people locking themselves to logging machinery or suspending themselves from heights.