On the weekend of 28 and 29 May, vandals struck at the base camp in the Wingello State Forest. The very large pine tree nearest the shed was cut down in such a way as to deliberately destroy the structure. Luckily no-one was in the shed when it was hit by the felled tree.
On the night of Friday 4 June or the morning of 5 June vandals struck again, cutting down six trees in Forest Road about 100 metres in front of the State Forest entrance, blocking access to the Forest.
Today (6 June) Council workers were out clearing the damage and re-opening the road.
Who would do such a thing?
It is thought the vandal is one of three types of person, none of whom thinks very clearly.
A local who is disenchanted that the Forest is so popular, with the increase in traffic interfering with his tranquility. The response is not very clever as the visitors to the forest are locals as well as others from further afield. These additional visitors benefit the Village in allowing for increases in services and facilities that would not be viable if we didn’t have such a great resource as the State Forest. The business generated by our visitors, although not great, is enough to allow for the expanded restaurant and cafe facilities at the shop. Having no visitors would mean no local hot food or coffee for residents. The visitors get to enjoy the delights of Wingello and then have to drive away envious of the locals who have such easy access to Wingello all the time.
A visitor upset that the forest was closed when they wanted to use the forest. All one has to do is visit http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/forests/locations/wingello to get all the information on when the Forest is closed for a special event. Planning ahead is such an easy thing to do.
A bored youth.
If you have any information as to the perpetrators of this vandalism, let us or the Police know. The felling of established trees in public areas is extremely dangerous and we will all be safer when the misguided vandals are stopped.
