Friends of the Forest (Mogo) are appealing to the public to record active bird nests and roosts to trigger exclusion zones from logging in Bodalla State Forest next to Lake Brou.
Compartment 3004 is down Tarourga Road off Potato Point Road north of Dalmeny and is scheduled to be logged this month. This is next to Eurobodalla National Park and Lake Brou which is part of Batemans Marine Park.
The harvest plan has previous records of gang gang cockatoos, little lorikeets as well as critically endangered swift parrots that forage on spotted gum flowers along the South Coast. There are only between 1000 to 2000 swift parrots left that migrate up from Tasmania. Continuous canopy is also critically important for yellow bellied gliders recorded in the compartment and greater gliders.
Bird nests trigger the following exclusion zones under environmental protections (radius):
· Osprey, square tailed kite, little eagle nest 100m
· Powerful, masked, sooty or barking owl nest 50m or roost 30m.
· White bellied sea eagle,glossy black-cockatoo, flame, scarlet or hooded robin nest 50m
· Little lorikeet, turquoise parrot nest 30m
· Gang-gang cockatoo , brown treecreeper, black-chinned honeyeater, varied sittella, regent honeyeater nest 20m
To record the location of active nests, take a photo of the tree with your smart phone ensuring “location” is turned on in settings.
This captures the GPS coordinates and is essential in accurately reporting features to be protected. To trigger environmental protection send an email with the photo with gps coordinates of the bird’s nest to info@environment.nsw.gov.au and info@fcnsw.com.au as well as friendsoftheforestnsw@gmail.com or message Friends of the Forest (Mogo) on facebook.
Upload photos of birds to https://atlasoflife.naturemapr.org/.
School Bus Routes
The harvest plan advises that Potato Point Road is used by school buses between the hours of 7.30am to 8.30am and 3.30-4.30pm. On weekdays, to the greatest extent practicable, log haulage should avoid school bus times on the above roads.
Post harvest burns and erosion concerns
Community Liaison for Friends of the Forest (Mogo) say "Given previous EPA prosecutions there is understandable community concern about the risk of the post harvest burn escaping into the rainforest areas and headwater habitat of Lake Brou and Lake Tarourga within the 205 hectare logging compartment as well as the adjacent Eurobodalla National Park and private properties. It is estimated that up to sixty five per cent of the tree (the entire tree top) is left on the forest floor as “slash” to be burnt." "Yield figures indicate 21% of the whole tree stems that are removed in logging trucks will be used for pulp and 11% for firewood, adding further to carbon emissions. Forestry Corporation were fined $35,000 for burning protected areas in Batemans Bay in 2013 and $30,000 for erosion control breaches in Gladstone State Forest near Bellingen in March 2018."
