Mr Beatty said this had severely disrupted flowering and nut production, the main food for cockatoos.

“The drought has affected all forest, including the 65 per cent of the forest in reserves and has caused similar problems such as the reduced production of honey by apiarists,” he said.

Habitat for cockatoos occurs both throughout the 65 per cent of the forest which is reserved in various forms and in the remaining 35 per cent of the forest which is available for harvesting.

Mr Beatty said within the harvest coupes (0.5 per cent of the forest) a forest canopy was maintained including selected and marked habitat trees, crop trees, shelterwood and trees which did not contain a marketable product.

These trees provide for nesting, roosting and food.

“There is no forest clearing around Nannup, however there is sustainable harvesting of timber in several coupes in the south west, including the Nannup area,” Mr Beatty said.

“The location of these areas is shown on the FPC website.

“Timber harvesting is unlikely to have a significant impact on cockatoo populations, as the scale of activity is low at about 0.5 per cent of the forest each year and a number of mature trees are retained on every harvest area to maintain habitat values.

“Marri, the major food species according to DEC, is not harvested in large quantities.

“Cockatoos readily use harvested forest where habitat values are retained.”

Mr Beatty said last week staff from the Forestry Minister’s office inspected Yabberup forest, which was harvested four years ago and saw a flock of forest red-tailed black cockatoos roosting on the retained trees within this coupe.