Just weeks after the end of native forest logging in Victoria, the Mayor of the Bega Valley Shire, Russell Fitzpatrick, will move a motion at Wednesday’s (February 21) local council meeting to make private land logging easier.
The motion would amend the Bega Local Environmental Plan to make Private Native Forestry Logging permitted without consent in Rural Landscape Zones (RU2). There is currently more than 44,000 hectares of RU2 zoned land in the Bega Valley Shire.
The motion states it would provide certainty and consistency for landholders, while maintaining ongoing habitat values for native fauna as well as creating some employment opportunities.
If given the green light, it will mean property owners on rural land would be free to harvest the native forests on their property, without any consent, an action that’s is currently prohibited in the Bega Valley Shire.
But Spokesperson for South East Region Conservation Alliance, Harriett Swift, said the move is far from being an economic asset to the region.
“This is a not very subtle attempt to increase log supplies to the woodchip mill following the end of native forest logging in Victoria on 1 January,” Swift said.
“Victorian forests have reportedly supplied a significant proportion of logs to the chipmill historically, with Pentarch Manager, Malcolm McComb, recently claiming that 50 percent of inputs to the chipmill came from Victoria,” she said.
Ms Swift said intensive logging for export woodchips was a massive carbon dioxide emitter, with emissions in NSW reportedly exceeding those of 840,000 cars in a year.
“Logging also destroys habitat for endangered forest dwelling wildlife such as the Greater Glider,” Swift said.
The mayor’s motion notes “the native hardwood industry employs 2,230 people on the NSW South Coast and private forestry provides at least 15 per cent of the high value saw logs harvested in NSW.”
But Swift says that’s an overreach.
“The mayor is making wildly optimistic and inaccurate claims about employment and economic benefits in support of his motion,” Swift said.
“The reality is that direct employment in logging is less than 1% of the Bega Valley workforce and there are more jobs in the arts and recreation than there are in logging.”
The estimated cost of council preparing a planning proposal to amend the RU2 zone to permit forestry without consent, would include up to $250,000 for Specialist studies if required by NSW Government Agencies, and $10,000 to $20,000 in consultant fees to prepare the planning proposal.
Bega Valley Shire Council Public Forums are held at Midday on the day of a Council Meeting, prior to the commencement of the meeting at 2pm and will be live streamed.
To speak at a public forum, a person must first make an application to the Council in the approved form, which is available on Council’s website online form HERE or by contacting the Executive Assistants to the Mayor and Chief Executive Officer.
Submissions can be written or video file, and must accompany the online form which must be received by 4pm on the day prior to the Council meeting date (Tuesday February 20).
The council meeting starts at 2pm and is held in the Council Chambers (Biamanga Room) at the Bega Valley Commemorative Civic Centre in Zingel Place, Bega.
Images: South East Region Conservation Alliance
