Koalas are providing NSW voters with an emotive reason to support Labor and The Greens at the March 23 election with anti-logging protests in timbered country up and down the eastern seaboard highlighting this option.
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The flip side, however, is the potential collapse of an industry that is life-support for many regional communities.
Meanwhile, Forestry Corporation of NSW says its management is proven to be world-class sustainable - that's why there are so many koalas in stands of regrowth hardwoods from Eden to Tweed. However at this point government is unable to comment because it is currently in "lock-down" mode ahead of the election.
Dailan Pugh of the North East forest Alliance disagrees with Forestry Corporation's views, saying prime koala habitat is being logged at Gibberagee State Forest near Grafton and at Wang Wauk north of Bulahdelah where protests have taken place over recent weeks to bring attention to declining koala populations.
On Monday in Gibberagee protesters again made a stand by bolting themselves to machinery in an attempt to halt forest industries from carrying out what its says is a legal right.
At the core of the debate is whether current forest management is working to protect koalas, which have decreased 26 per cent over three generations in NSW alone.
How much that loss is due to urban expansion, traffic and dogs or whether it is from loss of habitat through logging is at the centre of debate.
Mr Pugh says studies in forests like Clouds Creek near Dorrigo and Maria River near Kempsey show terminal decline of koala populations. As a tool for monitoring high use areas, their scats can show where the marsupials feed and should continue to be used to highlight areas that need protection.
Forests industry scientists say scats can exist in the soil for a long time and are not a reliable indicator. Audio recordings are the next tool in solving this debate but the science is still new.
In the meantime existing harvest licences require a "need to look" before logging and scat counts can determine high-use trees to afford their protection, says Mr Pugh.
Under the new licencing system there is no longer a requirement to look for koalas in the old way but harvesting in Giberagee falls under the old rules.
"We are enforcing them while we can," explained Mr Pugh.
Meanwhile spokesperson for sawmillers Maree McCaskill, general manager of Timber NSW, continues to point out that with 90 per cent of NSW’s forests protected in national parks and reserves (80 per cent, or almost 6 million hectares) or in State Forest Reserves and protected areas (10 per cent, or about 1 million hectares), and only 30,000ha selectively harvested each year and then regenerated as required by law, "we should be demanding to know why our extensive reserves system is failing".
"We need to realise that out of two million hectares of state forest just 2 per cent of NSW native forests are harvested for timber each year,"m she said.
"As an industry we are just holding out breath, waiting for the outcome on the 23rd. This is make or break time for native forests industries."
Labor's previous promise to create a 176,000ha "koala park" across the best blackbutt forests in the state remain a real option if the Liberal/ Nationals lose control although the CFMEU is currently dismissing the park as just a "rumour".
Ms McCaskill, meanwhile, points out that Labor's Mike Daley and John Graham had previously stated the koala park was part of their election strategy.
"The creation of that park will collapse this industry," she said.
