During the critical public exhibition period your supporting submissions on the Wilderness 2000 Protection Plan will be vital.

The Southern Forest decision will see around 50,000 hectares of state forest wilderness protected in national parks (see article on Southern Coast Forests). These and other substantial wilderness areas, however, remain at risk.

Most wilderness protection problems in the Southern Region can be traced to the new draft NPWS wilderness assessment guidelines. These guidelines have apparently led to about half of all wilderness-quality land being omitted from the draft NPWS proposals. The guidelines exclude natural bushland areas if these have been subjected to even minor disturbance. All wilderness areas contain the odd clearing, and even the most intact bushland is not pristine.

The wilderness hotspots in the South include:

• Northern Kosciuszko, the Deua River and Tuross River headwaters, where about 13,000 ha of NPWS-identified State forest wilderness may not be protected. Further logging of these areas would cause substantial soil erosion and sediment pollution of the streams, placing at risk the long-term integrity of the national parks downstream. The Government wilderness policy of protecting all NPWS-identified wilderness must continue to be upheld.

• The Tabletop wilderness may be reduced by half, and the Bungonia and North Ettrema areas also substantially reduced due to small areas of mining or minor disturbance such as grazing, despite these areas being essentially undamaged.

• The 28,000 ha Murruin wilderness in the southern Blue Mountains NP may not be protected at this stage on a forest process technicality.

Keith Muir
Director of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness.