The NSW Government has sat for almost a year on advice from the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) warning that thousands of hectares of state forests burnt in the 2019–20 fires risk permanent damage without a moratorium on logging or significant additional protections.

The NRC provided updated assessments of fire-damaged forests to the NSW Government in November 2024 under the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (CIFOA) — the rules that allow the State-Owned Forestry Corporation (FCNSW) to log public forests.

The report which was made public yesterday:

• Confirms that large areas of the South Coast remain too damaged to log and should be excluded from operations for years to come.
• Identifies five state forests covering 67,000 hectares as unsuitable for logging until at least March 2027 because of their extreme fire risk ratings.
• Recommends a further seven forests covering 13,000 hectares remain subject to high-risk restrictions until March 2025.
• Calls for significant additional protections to restore forest health and protect threatened species habitat.

The report also highlights the need to protect hollow-bearing trees that provide critical habitat for threatened species including the Greater Glider, Gang-gang and Glossy Black-Cockatoo. 

“The NSW Government has been sitting on a report for nearly a year that has warned ongoing logging in the most badly burnt forests risks their future recovery and that of many of our most precious threatened species. South Coast communities are right to be frustrated by the delays and lack of Government action to protect local forests, Justin Field, South Coast resident and spokesperson for the Forest Alliance NSW said today.

“This report is yet more evidence that public native forest logging is unsustainable and the Government should be moving to exit native forest logging and shift to a plantation based future for the timber industry in NSW. 

The Forest Alliance NSW is calling on the NSW Government to act on its own expert advice, put in place a moratorium on logging in fires-damaged forests, protect all remaining large hollow bearing trees across NSW and the South Coast, and work with the industry and community to put in place a clear plan to exit public native forest logging and shift the timber industry to plantation based future, Justin Field said.  

Scott Daines, from South East Forest Rescue said,  “Communities on the South Coast endured the most devastating bushfires in living memory. Continued logging of these forests  increases risks to people, water catchments and wildlife at a time when we should be focused on recovery and long-term restoration of these important forests.

“It is especially devastating to see local fire-affected forests logged when most of the timber being taken from South Coast public forests is turned into low-value woodchips for export. That is indefensible  ” 

‘The NRC report highlights the importance of protecting ecosystems and communities from the increased bushfire risk posed by native forest logging. It is incumbent on the government to take this advice seriously and ensure these at risk forests are not logged. 

Professor David Lindenmayer, AO said

“Native forest logging makes bushfires worse, and to say otherwise ignores the facts”.  

“Every empirical analysis so far shows logging eucalypt forests makes them far more likely to experience crown fire. - The data show that forests become less flammable 40-70+ years after they have been logged and regenerated

‘The NRC report highlights the importance of protecting ecosystems and communities from the increased bushfire risk posed by native forest logging. It is incumbent on the government to take this advice seriously and ensure these at risk forests are not logged.

Further information 

Link to NRC report: https://www.nrc.nsw.gov.au/news/60-cifoa-operation 

Summary of the evidence 

Extensive, peer reviewed research has found that logged forest was more likely to have burnt, and at a higher severity, during the 2019-20 bushfires than unlogged forests.  

Logging produces forests that are more likely to burn because: 

• It increased the amount of sunlight and wind that can enter and dry out the soil and understory.  This promotes the growth of more drought-tolerant and fire prone species such a eucalypts.  
• Less than 40% of a logged tree is removed from a site - the rest is left on the ground or in piles that dry out and increase the severity and impact of a fire (J.Sanger (2022) NSW's Forest Carbon,The Tree Projects, P.6) 
• The vegetation that regrows after logging has substantially more flammable branches close to the ground, creating a vertical ladder of fuel which will allow all available vegetation to burn, and at a higher temperature. 
• The crown fires that occur due to this vertical ladder are much more difficult to control, spread more quickly, and embers are much more easily transported by wind to start new spot fires. 

Further information

Forests where harvesting operations are recommended to cease:

Forests where additional harvesting restrictions and monitoring are recommended:

*** Logged as recently as March this year (after the government received this advice). 

Background

In 2021 the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) assessed NSW’s forests after the Black Summer fires. It identified many areas as high or extreme risk and recommended they not be logged, or that stronger protections be put in place.

Rather than accepting this advice, after being elected in 2023 the NSW Government asked the NRC to review it.

In the three years it took for the new report to be completed, Forestry Corporation continued to log forests that had been classed as high or extreme risk, under the same weak rules and with no additional protections.

In November 2024 the NRC delivered its updated assessment. It again recommended that logging not occur in forests categorised as extreme risk until at least March 2027, and that stronger protections — including hollow-bearing tree protocols for Greater Gliders — be applied to high-risk areas.

However, the 2024 reassessment also downgraded some areas that had previously been classed as high or extreme risk. By the time the new report was released, parts of those forests had already been logged while still officially rated as high or extreme risk.

However, since the NSW government received the 2024 report, no forests classified as extreme risk have been logged, although Forestry Corp has put in on their logging schedule, suggesting they have not been told no to log them. 

In terms of updated high risk logging, Kiwarrak State Forest near Taree was actively logged as recently as March 2025 without any additional protections for hollow-bearing trees.

At no point have the enhanced hollow-bearing tree protections been enacted.