Greens MP Sue Higginson has described logging operations in the Eden area as "a war zone".
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Days after announcing her party's plan to end native forest logging across NSW, Ms Higginson was in the Bega Valley to look at what's happening "on the ground".
"I am frankly really horrified at what I've seen," she told ACM on Friday, February 10.
"I've been looking at this area very closely since the early 2020 fires, like everybody in the country and many people across the world I was watching through every lens I could find.
"But seriously, just being on the ground, what I've seen has frankly really shocked me.
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"I'm seeing forest trying to recover, but then what I'm actually seeing and what I saw this morning is logging operations taking place in a forest that just cannot accommodate it.
"I feel like what I saw was a bit of a war zone and that the damage that we are doing is too much - the forest environment and that landscape will not cope."
Ms Higginson said the Greens were proposing $300million over the next 10 years to transition the state's logging sector away from native forest and into plantation softwood.
She said the majority of the state's hardwood was being used in "low-end" products like pallets, fence posts and woodchip, adding fuel to the Greens argument to finding alternatives.
However, Peter Rutherford from the South East Timber Association countered by saying the Greens "have made an artform of manipulating ignorant consumers".
Mr Rutherford said all Eden sawmill's products were used in higher end applications such as outdoor furniture and cladding.
"From a consumer perspective, does shifting all our hardwood needs overseas make any sense, financially or otherwise?" he said.
"I fundamentally disagree with that idea - it's dishonest and unethical.
"What about all those homeowners who want a timber staircase or flooring?
"If you agree with the Greens plan you can always go to Bunnings or somewhere and get your rainforest timber products from Brazil, or Indonesia where orangutan habitat is being cleared."
Ms Higginson said the Green's $300m plan was focused on the people currently working in the sector "who will need alternative work, retraining and redundancies if that's appropriate".
"There are likely people in the industry up and down the NSW East Coast that would like to get out of it if they know there's no future in it.
"So redundancies available, retraining available and adjustment for those who have gear and equipment that could be retooled, recalibrated to move into the plantation or the softwood sector."
She said it was a "structural adjustment" for the forestry sector based on an independent Frontier Economics report.
Ms Higginson acknowledged it would be challenging to get their plan actioned given "an absence of leadership" from both major parties.
"Clearly the community is where the leadership is coming from on this one," she said.
"There's not one reason to continue what we're doing."