WEPA attended the launch of The Forest Wars, a book by leading environmental scientist, Professor David Lindenmayer AO, hosted by our friends at the Nature Conservation Council.

David explained to NCC CEO Jacqui Mumford, and a captivated audience, that he was motivated to write the book after endless briefings to politicians who were misinformed by forestry industry lobbyists about logging practices and impacts. We heard stories of inadequate wildlife surveys, industry intimidation and the myths that perpetuate the ongoing destruction of precious wildlife habitat across NSW.

Large scale logging is liquidating our old growth forests, often to be chipped for export or to make low value cardboard product. Forestry corporations are not profitable, so tax dollars are being paid to convert our forests into pizza boxes! Selective logging destroys critical forest understory, increasing the likelihood and intensity of bushfires. Biodiversity is suffering as significant tree hollows, which take hundreds of years to form and provide habitat for greater gliders and many bird species, are being wiped out.

WEPA will continue the fight to stop native forest logging in NSW and The Forest Wars is a useful tool to help us counter the misinformation that prevails on this topic. It exposes how government and the logging industry are killing wildlife and increasing exposure to bushfires, at the expense of our taxpayer dollars. It is an unsustainable, unproductive and unprofitable practice.