Minister Declares Logging Will Continue in Australian State Forest
Despite Protest
7/9/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Minister Declares Logging Will Continue in Australian State
Forest Despite Protest
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: July 9, 1999
The New South Wales Forests Minister, Kim Yeadon, has dashed the
hopes of environmentalists by declaring logging will continue in the
Olney State Forest.
The North East Forest Alliance is in its second day of a blockade of
logging in the forest near Mount Watagan, south-west of Newcastle.
The dispute has centred on the timing of protection of the State's
remaining forests.
The dispute arose because the section of the Olney Forest will become
part of the State Forests reserve.
However, Mr Yeadon, says non-old growth sections can be logged first.
"The decision entails a transitional arrangement for State Forests to
wind down operations in those areas. That is what is occurring. That
is what some environmental groups are seeking to disrupt," he said.
Although the logging is legal and has environmental approval, Mr
Yeadon says the Government will not sanction any violent
confrontations with anti-logging protesters.