An explosive letter sent earlier this month to the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) from the heads of the Department of Regional NSW — Mr Barilaro's department — and Forestry Corporation of NSW states there has now been 'Substantial recovery post-fire in many coastal state forests'.

It declares logging in NSW can return to "standard" this month in forests not covered by new site-specific logging rules.

The letter comes despite an agreement struck between the loggers and the EPA earlier this year to only log areas according to those new rules.

The letter sparked a fiery response from EPA boss Tracy Mackey, which was published yesterday on the EPA's website.

She said the move did not appear to be lawful, and the EPA was now considering action to stop Forestry Corporation.

A spokeswoman for Forestry Corporation told the ABC they were "continuing to actively work with the EPA in good faith" and had "proposed a gradual return" to normal work, with additional voluntary protections.

Other documents released to NSW Parliament earlier this month show the EPA believed the actions were partly motivated by the direction of Mr Barilaro, the Department of Regional NSW and Forestry Corporation.

The documents also detail allegations that Forestry Corporation made false reports about its logging operations to avoid new protections.

Forestry Corporation denies these allegations.

The revelation comes less than two weeks after Mr Barilaro threatened to sit on the crossbench over new planning rules in NSW designed to protect koala habitat.

The threat sparked an internal war within the NSW State Government, with Mr Barilaro later backing down on the threat.

Barilaro is now on four weeks 'Mental health leave' and was unavailable for comment.

Logging changes after bushfires

Last summer's bushfires burned up to 42 per cent of public forests in NSW, including 25 per cent of the koalas' best habitat, according to an independent report commissioned by the EPA, also published on its website yesterday.

That review said the fires pushed animals into small patches of unburned or lightly burned forests, and that logging selectively targets those patches.

But in its letter, the loggers and the Department of Regional NSW said there had now been substantial post-fire recovery, and that the challenges that led to the changed logging rules "have now largely dissipated".

The EPA's independent report said recovery took between 10 and 120 years, depending on the species.

For koalas, forests needed about 45 years to recover, it said.

After the fires, logging in NSW stopped.

Negotiations began between Forestry Corporation and the EPA to develop so-called "site specific operating conditions" which would govern logging as it returned to the state forests.

In areas where those conditions were agreed and implemented, logging was allowed to continue.

Those negotiations have been drawn out, and agreements have not been reached for some areas.

With fewer areas to log, and more restrictions on areas they can log, Forestry Corporation and the Department of Regional NSW said in the letter 155 jobs were at risk in the next few months on the South Coast, and by the end of the year, another 450 would be threatened on the North Coast.

"All involved in this process have acknowledged that developing and operating under the [site specific operating conditions] is challenging and time consuming and is providing neither a landscape approach to environmental protections," the logging and department bosses wrote to the EPA, announcing they were abandoning the agreement.

In response, Ms Mackey said: "As you note this has not been easy, but this does not mean it should be abandoned."

The set of internal documents released yesterday suggest this is the latest of a series of agreements broken by the state-owned loggers.

In April, a brief to Environment Minister Matt Kean detailed how Forestry Corporation agreed to an EPA request to voluntarily not log in unburned forests while new rules were agreed to, but then reneged.

The brief says the move was motivated by Mr Barilaro who "asked them to deliver on contractual obligations".

Both the EPA and a representative for Mr Barilaro have been contacted for comment.

The documents also contain a brief by the EPA detailing alleged false reports by Forestry Corporation.

The EPA said Forestry Corporation falsely declared hundreds of logging operations were already active when they weren't.

The move was intended to stop those logging operations being affected by new rules.

"[Forestry Corporation] refused a request from EPA to disclose which operations had legitimately commenced, what type of activity and when.

"They then updated their portal to falsely suggest hundreds of forestry operations were active," the brief said.

Forestry Corporation said it had not seen this allegation before, and it was not true.

"Forestry Corporation considered operations to have commenced when the associated roadworks commenced, an opinion that was not shared by the EPA," it said in a statement.

Independent MP Justin Field said the EPA's response was "what the community expected from the regulator after such devastation from the fires".

"The EPA's most recent response is an astonishing rebuke and warns that Forestry Corporation's plan will be in breach of its own laws and would be hugely environmentally damaging," Mr Field said.