Forestry Corporation fined over felled tress on NSW Far South Coast

The group pleaded guilty to two offences in the NSW Land and Environment Court. The EPA says FCNSW had failed to identify two environmentally significant areas on its operational map near Eden on the state’s Far South Coast.

The EPA had imposed the conditions, to assist the recovery of the Yambulla State Forest after the Black Summer Bushfires in 2019/20.

Specifically, the harvesting was in breach of the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval and the Site-Specific Operating Conditions.

The EPA’s Executive Director of Operations, Jason Gordon has welcomed the court’s ruling.

“These special conditions were introduced to protect parts of the forest that weren’t as damaged by fire, giving wildlife and biodiversity a chance to recover,” he said.

The EPA says the trees were felled in an area that was home to important shelters and food resources for local wildlife and native plants.

“FCNSW and its contractors have a responsibility to comply with the rules, and in this case, there was a failure to mark the area off-limits in the operational map used for harvesting operations,” Gordon said.

The EPA says Forestry Corporation was found to have “caused substantial environmental harm and impacted various native flora and fauna species”.

There was also potential harm to three threatened bird species known to inhabit the area, being the Dusky Woodswallow, Scarlet Robin and Varied Sitella.