On 8 June 2011, the Land and Environment Court gave its
decision in Director-General, Department of Environment,
Climate Change and Water v Forestry Commission of New South
Wales [2011] NSWLEC 102.
In this case, the Court considered whether the Forestry
Commission of New South Wales was in breach of the National Parks
and Wildlife Act 1974 (NSW) (NPW Act) when it carried out bush fire
hazard reduction resulting in the burning of a critically
endangered habitat in a national park.
Background
The Forestry Commission of NSW (Commission) pleaded guilty to
the offence against s175(1)(a) of the NPW Act of contravening a
condition attached to its threatened species licence (Licence),
contrary to s133(4) of the NPW Act. The bush fire hazard reduction
took place between 29 April 2009 and 21 May 2009 and resulted in
the burning of over 90 per cent of the Smoky Mouse habitat in the
Nullica State Forest.
