The NSW Environment Protection Authority has approved logging in forests hard hit by recent bushfires in the state's north without first assessing the toll taken on koalas and other wildlife.

In early March, the agency gave the go-ahead for state-owned Forestry Corporation to log 5062 hectares – or 18 times the size of Sydney's CBD – in 19 compartments within three state forests on the Richmond River lowlands.

Areas such as the Banyabba region had lost half their koalas before the recent bushfire season. As many as three-quarters have been lost since. Credit:Dailan Pugh

That approval was despite the loss of as many as 90 per cent of the marsupials in burnt areas, according to environmental group, the North East Forest Alliance. About 83 per cent of the 71,000 hectares of "likely" koala habitat was burnt.

North East Forest Alliance spokesman Dailan Pugh said the EPA should first have assessed the effect of the fires on Banyabba Area of Regional Koala Significance that takes in the Bungawalbin, Doubleduke and Myrtle state forests.