Despite bushfire damage to half of NSW state forests, logging has returned at pace to unburnt areas, while so-called “salvage logging” has been approved in 11 burnt state forests, prompting fears that vulnerable species will be pushed further towards extinction. The salvage logging is being conducted under new rules specially drafted by the NSW Environmental Protection Agency. “Logging after the fire is the worst form of logging and now the NSW government is making the same ill-informed mistake that the Victorian government made in the past,” said Professor David Lindenmeyer from the Australian National University, who has written 25 scientific papers on the practice. He said the Victorian government had conducted salvage logging after fires in 1939, 1983 and 2009 and on each occasion had damaged forest floors, destroyed more wildlife habitat and left the forests more prone to bushfires.