Call to phase out native timber logging in state forests prompts protest in Clarence Valley

More than 100 protesters have rallied in Maclean, on the NSW north coast, as a local council considers a call to phase out native forest logging on public land. 

Mills across the region shut down at midday to allow owners, staff, and supporters to voice their concerns about a report from the Clarence Valley Council's biodiversity advisory committee.

The report called for the council to write to the NSW government demanding the urgent development of a transition plan that would see native timber harvesting in state-owned forests move towards a sustainable plantation-based industry.

The proposal first came before the Clarence Valley Council in late June when it was deferred to allow public feedback.

It attracted 2,464 public submissions with 2,358 supporting the timber industry, although the vast majority of those came in the form of template letters.

After an hour of public speeches and debate, the councillors voted overwhelmingly against the motion, eight votes to one, to applause from the packed public gallery.

They then voted in support of an alternate motion that recognised the importance of the logging industry to the local economy and agreed to take no further action.

“Timber workers do matter. Clarence Valley Council needs to support them,” said councillor Ian Tiley, who put forward the alternate motion.

Speaking before the meeting, Craig McPherson, whose family has operated a timber business in the Clarence Valley for five generations, said a plantation-based industry would have a negative impact on the region.

"Plantation timber causes a monoculture; you don't have the wide diversity that you have in native bush," he said.

"As a structural timber, plantation timber is nowhere near the quality of naturally grown timber. It doesn't have the density to it.

Union anger

Paul Taylor, from the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining Energy Union (CFMEU), addressed the protesters ahead of the council meeting.

"We've got to stop the rot here," he said.

"Our next big blue is with the Labor government and the Environment Minister Penny Sharpe. They need to listen to their constituents.

"They need to listen to us; don't keep running to The Greens.

"The extreme Greens come into your workplace and disrupt your livelihoods."

'Logs are getting smaller'

The debate comes as Victoria and Western Australia are set to ban logging in native forests in 2024.

Biodiversity committee member John Edwards, from the Clarence Environment Centre, said public native forests needed time to recover.

"Because what's happening now is, in our opinion, totally unsustainable," he said.

"The logs are getting smaller and smaller, the number of logs coming out of state forests is less and less every year and biodiversity is just going out the window." 

Clarence Valley councillor Greg Clancy, who is a member of several local environment groups, spoke in favour of the strategy and was the only one who voted in its favour during the meeting.

"This is something that has to happen," he said.

"If we don't have a plan to transition, I'm fearful that the logging will continue to a point where it won't be sustainable in the long term."

Cr Clancy said he was not surprised to see such a passionate response from the timber industry.

"I was involved back in the early 1980s lobbying to have the rainforest protected — in particular the Washpool, which is now a national park," he said.