The Bellingen community calls for a complete stop to aerial and ground-based spraying of pesticides by the Forestry Corporation of NSW in the Bellingen Shire to control weeds in Forestry Corporation plantations because it can never be carried out without causing harm to the community and the environment.

The Bellingen Shire community will not wear these risks to its environment and people. The community respectively asks the NSW Government to stop the current and any future pesticide application in any form and allow these forests to regenerate using non-chemical integrated weed management practices. Due to the ongoing problems with topography - with its many valleys and waterways, very high rainfall, sensitive ecosystems, proximity to people and properties and wildlife corridors, we do not believe these areas will ever be suitable for monoculture timber plantations managed with pesticides.