A "small trial" of the practice, which uses cables to clear-fell whole stands of trees, has been proposed for state native forests west of Nambucca and Urunga, but Mr Stokes said he was yet to receive a proposal.

"Straight away, I'd like to rule out that it would occur in any areas that hadn't previously been subject to logging," Mr Stokes told a forum of environment groups at Parliament on Tuesday evening.

The government would also insist that there was no reduction in environment standards, Mr Stokes said.

"It would be difficult to conceive of a proposal in logging slopes of greater than 30 degrees, where that wouldn't be done in a way that wouldn't involve a loss of environment values," he said.

The NSW Nature Conservation Council, which was a joint host of the event, has called on the government to drop plans to test the use of cables to clear-fell forests.

"In the Upper Bellinger Valley, 80,000 tonnes of soil washed into the river during a single logging operation on steep slopes in the early 1990s," Kate Smolski, chief executive of the group said this week.

"Now, quite incredibly, the Forestry Corporation is preparing to pillage steeply sloping forests in this region once again, this time a controversial and costly technique called cable logging."

Labor's Luke Foley, who has maintained his close oversight of his party's environmental policy since taking over as leader 10 weeks ago, said he would oppose the trial.

"We'll ban cable logging, steep-slope logging, whatever you call it," Mr Foley told the forum.

The Greens environment spokeswoman, Mehreen Faruqi, told the gathering that her party would end all logging and mining in state native forests by 2016, covering 2 million hectares.

"All high-conservation state native forests will be converted into national parks and managed by the Department of the Environment and not the Department of Primary Industries," Dr Faruqi said, adding that the Greens would earmark $80 million over four years to help forest workers exit the industry.

Mr Stokes said he recognised "the need over the longer term to transition to plantation timbers", adding the government should work with the federal government to extend to hardwoods the tax incentives that had helped foster the growth of softwood plantations.

"The lack of similar concessions has resulted in more harvesting in native forests of certain species, such as blackbutt," Mr Stokes said.

A spokeswoman for Forestry Corporation said harvesting in steep areas was part of a review into the long-term sustainability of logging in North Coast forests.

"A trial would take place only in areas of regrowth forest that have been harvested for timber in the past and are currently zoned for harvesting," the spokeswoman said. "The trial is only at a conceptual stage and the details of the trial will be jointly developed between Forestry Corporation and the EPA at a later date."

Wide range 

The candidates answered a wide range of questions from coal seam gas to the role of Environment Protection Authority.

Mr Foley pledged to repeal the government's State Environmental Planning Policies that gave "unbalanced" support for major projects.

A Labor government would treat "environmental and social impacts of a proposed new mine or proposed new mine extension equally with the economic dollar value of a project that is seeking approval", he said.

The Greens would go further, banning any new coalmines and setting a timetable to phase out existing coalmines and coal-fired power plants because of the risks fossil fuels bring to climate change, Dr Faruqi said.

The Greens would also seek to have ecological experts accredited and ensure that consultants brought in to assess environmental impacts of major projects operated "independent of proponents".

Rehabilitation funds

Mr Stokes, meanwhile, spoke of the Baird government's plans to use its container deposit scheme - opposed by beverage companies as a cost impost - "to change the culture" of how society views waste and scarce resources.

Mr Stokes also announced a Liberal-Nationals government would fund an Urban Habitat Renewal grant pool with $5 million over four years to help preserve bushland from urban sprawl.

Local councils, Landcare and Community Bushcare groups would be able to apply for funds from July 1 to help them combat weeds, feral animals and other threats to biodiversity.

"These places are going to be so important for connecting people in urban areas to natural areas," Mr Stokes said. "It's only there that people learn a love for the bush and an appreciation of the bush, and that creates lobbies for the future in terms in protecting our national parks estate.

"It was the bit of bush at the end of my street that captured my imagination and love for the Australian bush," Mr Stokes said. "That's the opportunity we want to provide for the next generation of kids."