A new study by University of Wollongong researchers finds logging makes the Australian bush more prone to bushfires

The study by a team of Wollongong researchers and published in the journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology found "changes in vegetation associated with logging and to a lesser extent wildfire, increase the risk of fire".

Researchers measured climate conditions such as air temperature, humidity and wind at 119 forest sites on the coastline between Ulladulla and Narooma.

The study found recently logged sites had higher predicted fire ratings and as much as 150 per cent higher fuel load, exacerbating fires conditions.

Recently logged sites were found to have more days per year of high risk fire conditions than non-logged sites - 24 days compared to two days.

When asked if Forestry Corporation would change their operations because of the study, a spokesperson for the group said, "we welcome any new research that adds to the large body of existing work on fire management in Australia. However, scientific consensus does not support a link between timber harvesting and fire risk".

The spokesperson pointed to a paper titled 'No evidence that timber harvesting increased the scale or severity of the 2019/20 bushfires in south-eastern Australia' by Melbourne academics published in the Australian Forestry journal - a Taylor and Francis publication for Forestry Australia.

The paper found "analysis of the areas burnt in 2019/20 indicated that the extent and severity of the fires was determined almost entirely by three years of well-below-average rainfall, extreme fire weather conditions and local topography and that past timber harvesting had negligible or no impact on fire severity".

Eurobodalla Shire Greens councillor and deputy mayor Alison Worthington said those arguing logging didn't effect the severity of fires were "running on old information".

She was not surprised by the findings of the latest study.

"Professor David Lindenmayer - the most cited and peer-reviewed forest ecologist in Australia - has been telling us about this and working in our forests for 30 years," she said.

"This is just the same information now coming to us from a different institution."

In April, Cr Worthington tabled a motion for Eurobodalla Shire Council to advocate to the NSW Government to end the logging of state forests.

Councillors voted against the motion, instead asking for more information on the subject.

Upon their request, councillors have been addressed by Professor David Lindenmayer. They have also been addressed by members of Forestry NSW, Birdlife Australia and members from Friends of the Forest Mogo.

While her motion appeals to the economic costs of logging, Cr Worthington hopes this latest report will convince councillors to vote in support of her motion when it again is brought before the council in August.

"Councillors might think this is not our jurisdiction, but 31 per cent of the land in the shire is state parks; 80 per cent of the land in the shire was burnt during the fires. While it is in our backyard, it is in our jurisdiction," she said.

"We have to ask ourselves, 'Is this how we are happy to manage biodiversity in our state forests? Is this how we are happy to manage fire safety in our state forests?'"

For Friends of the Forest Mogo campaigner Nick Hopkins, the latest study findings are also not at all surprising.

He witnessed the Currowan State Forest destroy his home during the Black Summer Bushfires.

"Knowing that it was not a natural disaster - it was a human made disaster, a disaster made way less controllable by human activity particularly logging - was a kick in the guts," he said.

"You can't say the logging industry resulted in the burning down of my house, but it was clearly an exacerbating factor, and a very important one."

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He said anger from his own loss motivated him to point out the multiple flaws within the current logging operating model, and to lobby to stop native logging.

"This report has highlighted this particular negative aspect of the forest logging amongst many negative aspects," he said.

He listed other aspects as the danger to threatened species, the destruction of carbon sinks, the sabotage of eco-tourism opportunities and the economic costs.

Forestry has been fined more than $600,000 across Australia since the Black Summer Bushfires - $60,000 in the Eurobodalla and neighbouring Brooman State Forest alone.

"For every hectare that has been logged recently, taxpayers lost $440," Mr Hopkins said.

"It's a loss making enterprise, which we, the people of NSW, are subsidising."

Mr Hopkins would like to see the transition of the logging industry to be 100 per cent plantation-based forestry.

He, along with Friends of the Forest Mogo, are sharing an e-petition hoping to receive 20,000 signatures by the end of the July to force NSW politicians to debate state logging in parliament.

The petition includes asking for native logging to be halted until the regulatory framework reflects the recommendations of the leaked Natural Resource Commission (NRC) report.

The NSW Government asked the Commission - itself an organisation run by the government - to report on Forestry operations after the Black Summer bushfires.

While the report was submitted to state government in June 2021, it remains classified as cabinet in confidence - not made available to the public. However, the report was leaked to the Guardian news outlet in November 2021.

The leaked documents revealed the report called for the suspension of logging for a minimum of three years in three "extreme risk" zones - including Nowra and Narooma. Batemans Bay was one of six "high risk" areas.

Both Cr Worthington and Mr Hopkins called for the NSW government to release the NRC report.

"The report is being ignored and Forestry cannot implement the recommendations of that report because politicians are just sitting on it," Cr Worthington said.

"This is something taxpayers have a right to be cranky about.

"Come on NSW, it's time to end native logging."