Lithgow Council in New South Wales is curious to know why State Forests is not planning to replant the area. It is a question that will also intrigue the wider community for whom the Newnes State Forest has been a part of the landscape for decades. Source: Lithgow Mercury
The surprise announcement arose from a meeting of the Lithgow Council’s local traffic committee. Attending the meeting for the first time was Mr Tijmen Klootwijk, the recently appointed haulage and sales coordinator for Forestry NSW.
Part of Mr Klootwijk’s role is to assist in safety and efficiency measures for logging trucks.
The meeting was told that the present harvesting operation in the Newnes Forest is expected to continue for about two years.
During that time there will be in the vicinity of 30,000 logging truck movements through Lithgow, en route mainly to the processing mills at Oberon, Bathurst and Tumut.
Mr Klootwijk surprised the committee with the information that Forests NSW does not have current plans to re-plant the area.
Lithgow Council had not previously been advised of the department’s intentions. At its most recent regular meeting council agreed without further comment to seek clarification from Forestry NSW on just what is intended for the future of the pine plantations on the Newnes Plateau.
Inmates from the now long gone Newnes Afforestation Correctional Centre carried much of the planting in the mature sections of the forest out years ago.
Forests NSW last year carried out a major harvesting operation in sections of the Lidsdale State Forest overlooking Wallerawang.
