POLICE have begun operations to monitor and act on any protest activity deemed illegal in the Bermagui State Forest.
Inspector Garry Huard from Batemans Bay police confirmed extra police from the southern region including a rescue team have arrived in the area as the logging activity began this week.
Forest NSW has begun logging compartments 2004 and 2005 to the southwest of the intersection of the Cobargo and Bermagui roads.
Police say they are in contact with logging contractors and in discussion with protestors.
“We will be posted out there on site for as long as they are required with their role to ensure any protest activity takes places lawfully and the logging contractors can do their work,” Inspector Huard said.
The police presence did place a strain on local resources but every step was being in put place to ensure service for normal duties was not interrupted, he said.
Police said the protestors had a right to protest but police were taking a zero tolerance approach to any illegal activity and would prosecute anyone found to be doing the wrong thing.
Whether the protestors would be setting up a camp as they did with the Gulaga compartment last year was unclear but police would continue discussion on a designated site and the Bega Valley Shire Council was also being consulted.
“Protestors on site so far have been well behaved,” he said.
Forest protest at bus stop
More than 40 community members from all walks of life took time off to meet at the Bermagui-Cobargo turnoff on Monday morning.
They were gathered in a peaceful protest against the logging of the Bermagui State Forest for woodchips.
“There is a perception amongst the forest conservation community that there is a concerted effort across the eastern states to mount a co-ordinated pillage of contentious native forest areas” said Tony Whan, forest activist with South East Forest Rescue.
“The Upper Florentine in Tasmania, Valley of the Giants in East Gippsland, and Bermagui in the South East of NSW are being simultaneously logged.”
Friends of Five Forests spokesperson Suzanne Foulkes expressed concern over the failure of Forestry NSW to arrange the promised community consultation meeting with the Department of Environment and Conservation to discuss the fate of Bermagui’s last koala colony and their habitat.
In spite of the Harvesting Plan only being released on Friday, the logging machinery was moved into Bermagui’s State forest on Monday under police protection.
This industry has a history of environmental vandalism, uncontrolled erosion, siltation of river systems and the destruction of biodiversity and vital carbon storage, Mr Whan said.
“The question must be asked: How is it our police have been compromised into protecting an operation that is, under the legislated requirements of the Regional Foresty Agreement, illegal?” he said.
Email a friend