WITH NSW koala numbers down 26 per cent over the last 15-20 years there is a pressing need to do something about this iconic species. But the timber industry is not prepared to cop the blame, pointing out that most of the viable koala habitat lies on private land.
Steve Hartley, director of planning with the Office of Environment and Heritage says the need to do something is obvious. He points out that the steep decline has occurred in only three generations of koala breeding.
Meanwhile the timber industry is saying ‘don’t blame us’ and points to the number of new parks and nature reserves that were created within the last two decades.
Those who wield the axe, so to speak, say koala numbers have dropped because rampant regrowth in areas where new parks and reserves have been ‘locked up’ is literally choking out koala food supply.
Trevor Bailey, representing Notaras sawmill, Grafton, made his point at a recent meeting in Coffs Harbour that the push to convert state forest estate in national parks had exacerbated koala decline. Areas locked up were not managed and regrowth had become so dense that the koala food source was ‘restricted’. Dense forest, he continued, also provided perfect cover for feral animals like wild dogs and pigs.
“People can’t see the forest for the trees,” he said. “We need sustainable growth, not just regrowth. It all comes back to the way we have locked up forests. What we do as loggers in the forest actually benefits the koala.”
The same argument exists in the Piliga, where forestry has reduced its commercial thinning operations to the point, says one district timber man, that koalas can’t move between the thickets of young cyprus branches.
Millers now must contend with restricted access to forests and as a result juvenile trees, thinner logs and lower yields. Yet to stay in business they have had to invest in expensive multi-blade sawmilling equipment.
“When started in the mill 39 years ago we’d get three logs to a load now it’s more like 30,” said Mr Bailey. “We are dealing with smaller resources and less return per log.”
The pressure on remaining resource is more intense now because loggers are back in rotation after perhaps 20-25 years whereas before Bob Carr locked up the forests that second cut wouldn’t come for 40-50 years.
Mr Bailey also expressed concern that closed parks now had less fire access than when they were state forest, and that feral control by amateur hunters would help reduce feral population in areas where koalas lived.
Eye in the sky
Forestry Corp’s senior manager in planning, Dean Kearney, said one way to tackle the koala issue was to work smarter, not harder. He suggests using technology to map koala food trees
Tagging these important trees before harvest, and leaving space around them afterwards, is usual practice but the current emphasis on koala scats as evidence the tree is in current use is not accurate, he said. Scats can be quite old. “A better way is to predict where prime habitat might be growing,” he said.
There is already on-going work through DPI and Forestry Corp to identify likely areas of, say, tallowood and bluegum growing at certain altitude using a predictive model that combines data including aerial photography and soil type.
“At the moment there is no definite picture of where koalas live in NSW,” he said. “But we do have an idea where the food trees grow and only 15 per cent of them are in state forests.”
He said 30 per cent of koala food trees existed in national parks while more than half - 53 per cent - grew on private land.
“There is some very good habitat around towns and cities like Lismore, Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie,” he said.
Of course where koala food trees exist near urban expansion other factors come into play - like traffic and dogs.
National Parks Association spokesman Ashley Love, from the Coffs Harbour branch, said he could only hope the current attempt to address koala decline would be more productive from past pursuits.
“It is quite clear that the koala is the worst managed native animal in NSW,” he said. “The approach has been fragmented across a number of government departments and there has been a poorly co-ordinated attempt to address some of those weaknesses. We have had a bad start.” Mr Love was particularly critical of the way past government approach failed to consult with community stakeholder groups.
Combined push to solve koala concern
A concerted push by NSW government departments is hoping to address declining koala populations in New South Wales.
“The downward trend that we have seen in just three generations is likely to continue unless there is intervention,” said Steve Hartley, director of planning with the Office of Environment and Heritage.
Mr Hartley is co-ordinating a number of departments - forestry, parks, lands - to come up with a better way of dealing with declining koala numbers. In addition these departments will work with 40 local councils to make sense of all the individual plans of management. Local Lands Service at Armidale and Cooma are co-ordinating half a dozen community groups and concerned wildlife carer groups are also involved.
The combined action is in direct response to last December’s release of a report by the NSW chief scientist Dr Mary O’Kane Who recommended 11 courses of action beginning with the request that government departments work together.
Mr Hartley said he had seen the combined approach work well when DPI, transport, planning and environment departments united under the Marine Estate Management Authority.
“It’s a fantastic model,” he said.
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