It is NAFI’s claims that are, at best, misleading and unscientific. Recent research has shown that Yellow-bellied Gliders in Victoria’s Central Highlands are now virtually absent from Mountain Ash forests used for intensive timber production. My own research in Box-Ironbark forests indicates that there have been local extinctions of some birds and a mammal due to forestry practices removing mature trees from large areas. Such local extinctions can ultimately lead to the final global extinction of a species. Local extinctions can also affect the normal ecological functions and health of a forest.
Amongst researchers who have studied the effects of logging on flora
and fauna there is a broad consensus that current intensive logging and
woodchipping practices are not ecologically sustainable. I challenge
the National Association of Forest Industries to talk to leading wildlife
researchers and inform themselves of the latest findings on the effects
of intensive logging operations. Until they do, wildlife researchers,
and I suspect the general public, will continue to laugh at their claims
of having science on their side.