PRELIMINARY AUDIT OF DOUBLEDUKE STATE FOREST

Supplementary Audit of Doubleduke State Forest PRELIMINARY AUDIT OF DOUBLEDUKE STATE FOREST: COMPARTMENTS 144, 145 and 146 SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT 1 Dailan Pugh, November 2010 For North East Forest Alliance ABSTRACT This supplementary report details the finding of additional areas of illegal logging in an Endangered Ecological Community in Compartment 145 of Doubleduke State Forest in north-east NSW. The preliminary audit by NEFA 4 months ago found a patch of 20 trees felled within a stand of the Endangered Ecological Community (EEC) Sub-tropical Coastal Floodplain Forest of the NSW North Coast bioregion. Since then both Forests NSW and the Department of Environment Climate Change and Water (DECCW) have been undertaking audits of the area without finding any additional intrusions. This report details additional intrusions into the EEC, easily found by NEFA, within the same stand of the EEC, downstream from the reported breach, in Compartment 145. We found an additional 46 trees that had been logged within the EEC and 1,387 other trees and shrubs that had been bulldozed out of the ground, trampled by machinery, or had trees dropped on them within the EEC. These activities in the EEC have exposed Forests NSW to a maximum fine of at least $16,203,000 if they are ever prosecuted. Within the EECs we also document breaches of 6 requirements of the Threatened Species Licence and 7 of the Fisheries Licence. The failure to duly consider the ...