Taxpayers are being asked to subsidise logging in four ecologically sensitive state conservation areas in northern NSW, according to the recommendations of a draft report of the Natural Resources Commission.
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The report, which remains open for public comment until August 10, recommends logging of white cypress pines be permitted in four regions within the Brigalow-Nandewar conservation area north of Coonabarabran.
“Total program costs are estimated to vary between $320 per hectare for moderate levels of thinning and $575 for hectare for heavy loads of thinning,” the commission reports, adding that 30 to 40 per cent of the costs could be recouped through the sale of sawlogs and other products.
Keith Muir, the director of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, said: "They are logging the forest and they want the taxpayer to fund it. It's crazy."
Gunnedah Timbers, a major mill in the region, is reportedly running out of timber supply within weeks. The company was visited by Environment Minister Rob Stokes in May to hear calls for access to the conservation forests, according to the Namoi Valley Independent newspaper.
“These forests were locked up many years ago for environmental reasons and it is clear that it has not worked,” the Nationals' local member for Tamworth, Kevin Anderson, was reported as saying. The SMH sought further comment from Mr Anderson about the subsidy recommendation.
The commission’s report weighed the costs and benefits of “ecological thinning” and said the negative effects, such as non-native species invasion including weeds, could be managed.
“The Commission’s suggestion state conservation area reserves should be logged for their own good is repugnant,” Mr Muir said. “It would be a less harmful outcome if taxpayers paid loggers and graziers to leave the state conservation areas alone.”
The “priority areas for intervention in the four areas – Pilliga, Pilliga West, Goonoo and Trinkey – have patches of dense white cypress pine covering regions of more than 500 hectares, the report said.
The four areas also contain as many as 42 threatened native fauna and 18 threatened native flora species, the report said.
A spokeswoman for the Office of the Environment and Heritage said the commission is independent, and added Minister Rob Stokes “will consider the report and submissions in light of his legislative responsibilities to protect the environmental qualities of national parks and state conservation areas”.
