AUSTRALIA – The Berejiklian government has suspended plans to remap old-growth coastal state forests after last summer’s bushfires burnt large swathes of woodlands including almost half the remnant primary forests of the north-east. The mapping was to have been used to identify sections of forest that might have been used for logging. The Natural Resources Commission announced the suspension on Thursday, noting bushfires had scorched more than 5 million hectares of NSW. Of the 890,000 hectares of native state forest burnt, more than 100,000 hectares of that was old growth. Environment Minister Matt Kean told the Herald…, “It’s a common-sense approach, especially following in the wake of the bushfires, that we protect and preserve our old-growth forests.” The commission said that where the forest canopy had been burnt, remote-sensing technology “cannot be accurately applied”. “Our assessment found that over 45 per cent of mapped old growth in North Coast state forests experienced full or partial canopy burn in the 2019-20 fires,” it said.