Community campaigners calling for bushland on Newcastle's western fringe to be declared a national park have launched a parliamentary petition.
Save Link Road Forest campaign members met and went cycling with Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson at the Glendale Wallsend Tramway Track on Saturday, May 30.
A parliamentary e-petition to the NSW Legislative Council calling for Link Road Forest to be preserved as a national park was launched at the event.
Campaign members also presented Ms Higginson with questions to ask Environment Minister Penny Sharpe in parliament, including an invitation for her to come and experience the forest and meet with campaigners.
Save Link Road Forest campaign spokesperson Ian McKenzie said it was time for other NSW politicians to get involved.
"It is vital that our elected representatives listen to what the community is saying about Link Road Forest," he said.
The state government previously announced plans to rezone 574 hectares of bushland straddling Newcastle and Lake Macquarie for 4200 homes as part of the massive Eden Estates project.
The forest includes land at 144 Boundary Road, Wallsend and adjoining parcels in Glendale.
"If it's rezoned for housing, its real value for wildlife and the community will be lost forever," Mr McKenzie said.
Ms Higginson said she would work with the community to get the government to support the push.
"The highest and best use for the Link Road Forest is to be protected as part of a regional national park," she said.
Newcastle councillors last year threw their weight behind the campaign to turn the block of land -roughly the size of more than 280 MCG fields - earmarked for housing into a national park.
An Eden Estates spokesman said at that time that all of the natural constraints and opportunities of the site were being considered and identified by the NSW Department of Planning.
