Wildlife conservation in the south-east forests of New South Wales

The aim of this paper is to review existing information on wildlife conservation within the South-east Forests Region of NSW and on the effects of logging and associated practices on conservation values of these forests, and to then make recommendations based on this review.We consider land systems, forest types, plant communities, plant associations and individual animal species.We do not, however, consider individual plant species.Our conclusions and recommendations are as follows: 1. Logging of forests brings about essentially permanent changes in the distributions and abundances of their plants and animals and destroys any wilderness value of the forests.There should therefore be reservation of some areas essentially free from the effects of logging and associated practices.2. Present National Parks and other Reserves are essentially unlogged or unaffected by other unnatural disturbance (i.e., are essentially undisturbed) and have generally low timber value because of their rugged topography.These existing reserves should therefore form the basis of a reserve system in the South-east Forests Region.Additions to the reserve system should come from the region) State Forests as they contain almost all remaining undisturbed forest.3. Five of the region's ten land systems, as defined by Keith & Sanders (1988, 1990), are inadequately conserved (i.e., Rainshadow Valley, Western Flat Country, Tableland, Granitic Hinterland, Escarpment).We expect the same should be true for the forest types (sensu Forestry Commission of NSW, 1989a), plant communities (sensu Keith & Sanders, 1988, 1990) and plant associations (sensu NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, 1986a) associated with these land systems.4. A number of animal species are rare or endangered within the region and are therefore of concern.These include 15 mammal, two bird and one fish species.Also of concern are the region's 18 microchiropteran bat species as their distributions are very poorly known and they are likely to be adversely affected by logging.The region has been inadequately surveyed for all animal groups.5.The reasonably large Coolangubra Wilderness area is not totally included in the present reserve system.6.The conservation values of each of the region's State Forests were assessed in terms of extent of undisturbed forest, presence of areas of poorly conserved land systems, wilderness area, 1 13.Most of the remaining undisturbed forest in the region's state forests is of high conservation value.Alternatives to logging these areas should therefore be fully explored and any increases in availability of timber should be used to enable additional undisturbed forest areas to be added to the reserve system.Any logging of the remaining undisturbed forest should be postponed as long as possible; if it occurs it should begin in areas of lowest conservation value.14.Alternative strategies to logging the remaining undisturbed forest, such as those proposed by the South-east Forest Alliance, have not been adequately considered.We recommend a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the range of alternatives along the lines of the current Resource Assessment Commission's Inquiry into Australia's Forest and Timber Resources.15.Documentation of past land-use decisions (e.g., State Forest versus National Park)• and their justifications is poor while that for land-management decisions (e.g., control burning regime) is reasonable.There is also little opportunity for interested parties to comment on land-use and land-management proposals.We therefore recommend the establishment of improved procedures for the preparation of supporting documentation in association with proposals for National parks, Flora Reserves and National Estate Listing, for soliciting and evaluating comments from interested parties on these proposals, and for comparison and combination of competing proposals.Advisory Councils, with appropriate expertise and representatives from a variety of interests, could make well-considered recommendations to the State and Federal Governments concerning the operations of the Forestry Commission and other Government Bodies.PYKE, G.H. & P.J. O'CONNOR, 1991.Wildlife conservation in the South-east Forests of New South Wales.