Our native forests provide homes for endangered species, help tackle climate change, are important for maintaining Aboriginal culture and are part of who we are as Western Australians. I do not support any further logging of south-west forests and find the proposals for continued and increased logging in the draft Forest Management Plan to be totally unacceptable.

I ask the EPA to reject the proposals for continuedlogging in the draft Forest Management Plan on the basis that such activities are environmentally unacceptable for the following reasons.

• Continued logging of native forests places threatened wildlife at a high risk of extinction. The ForestCheck monitoring system used by DEC has failed to assess the impact of logging on numbats, and the majority of the other threatened forest – dependent species. I request the EPA apply the same assessment criteria for threatened species as used by the Commonwealth Government for other developments that impact on these species.
• Marri trees of all ages are critical to the survival of WA's endangered black cockatoos, yet the draft FMP proposes increased logging of marri trees and provides insufficient protection of marri habitat trees. There should be no further destruction of Marri trees whatsoever.
• The FMP has failed to properly assess the impact of logging on Aboriginal cultural values of south-west forests at a landscape scale as required under legislation. The EPA must independently assess the impact continued logging will have on Aboriginal cultural values.
• The Department of Environment and Conservation lacks the powers to enforce compliance with The FMP, which is inadequate as a regulatory instrument. It is not acceptable that forest logging operations are exempt from legislation to protect our threatened species and that there are no effective regulatory sanctions for non compliance with the FMP.
• The FMP totally fails to manage the impact of logging operations on natural carbon stocks. The EPA must require a thorough audit of carbon stocks in south-west forests and ensure that the natural carbon stored in these forests is maintained, not degraded and destroyed by logging activities.

The draft FMP does not comply with principles for Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management and there has not been any assessment of alternative uses for the forest, such as the generation of carbon credits.