GREATER GLIDERS THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION

 Greater Gliders, a nocturnal species and the world’s largest gliding marsupial, weigh up to 1.3 kg and are capable of gliding up to 100m through a forest. Once abundant in eucalypt forests throughout Queensland, NSW and Victoria, the species was federally listed as endangered in July 2022.  

Professor David Lindenmayer, a world-leading expert in forest ecology and biodiversity conservation, said recently, “Forty years ago when my colleagues and I did spotlighting surveys, the southern greater glider was the most common animal we’d see. Now, this amazing species is endangered. In many areas it is hard to find; in others it has been lost altogether.”

Glider populations declined by 80% in the last twenty years as a result of habitat destruction – including forest destruction, bushfires and climate change.  Gliders are amongst the range of species relying on tree hollows which can take over 100 years to develop.  So old growth forest provides the required habitat of large tree hollows where they shelter and breed.

Recently the role of NSW Forest Corporation (Forest Corp) logging in destroying endangered species habitat for Greater Gliders and Koalas has been highlighted with community members reporting numerous breaches of regulations which are supposed to offer some protection for these species.   Breaches in Styx River SF and Sheas Nob SF are amongst the latest reported.

Although the NSW Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has imposed fines on Forest Corp for breaches, environmentalists are concerned that the prosecutions and fines are not enough to bring Forest Corp into line and that effective action is needed from the Environment Minister and Premier to stop the habitat destruction.

One of the community groups campaigning to stop forest destruction is the Blicks River Guardians which last Friday at Billys Creek celebrated 150 days of saving the Greater Gliders in Clouds Creek SF.  The Guardians have identified over 40 gliders to date in bushfire impacted older forests along Billys Creek and the Blicks River in areas scheduled for industrial logging by Forest Corp.

Campaigners like the Guardians are urging people to call for effective Government action to stop the destruction.

-        Leonie Blain

Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , August 7, 2024.

 

GOVERNMENT SLEIGHT OF HAND WEAKENS GREATER GLIDER PROTECTIONS

North Coast Environment Council Media Release

2^nd February 2024

The NSW Government is being tricky with its numbers, suggesting they have improved protection for Greater Gliders when they have actually weakened it according to NCEC Vice-President, Susie Russell.

Instead of being honest with the people of NSW and acknowledging that we can’t have all the unique and precious animals our forests still support AND a native forest logging industry. The animals need undisturbed forest and the other rampages across the landscape leaving devastation in its wake. It is one or the other. They are lying when they suggest we can have both.

“Today’s announcement by the NSW Environment Protection Authority, removing the requirement for Forestry Corporation to look for Greater Gliders, and other animals home den trees prior to logging is another nail in the coffin of these already endangered creatures.

“It looks like nature has lost and the Government is opting for telegraph poles, pallets, floorboards and woodchips rather than koalas, owls, quolls and gliders.

“The Government needs to immediately begin to buy back wood contracts to take the pressure off our wildlife,” Ms Russell said, “because animals like endangered Greater Gliders die when their den trees die, and they die when their home range is cleared by logging machinery. That’s one reason they are endangered, and the EPA is meant to protect the environment, not the logging industry.”

 

THE EPA's POOR ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD

In August 2018, at the request of the owner of a newly acquired bush property, the Clarence Environment Centre investigated a Private Native Forestry (PNF) operation that had been undertaken there immediately prior to the new owner taking possession.

That investigation uncovered horrific environmental damage, and blatant flouting of the PNF Code of Practice, under which the logging was approved. Hundreds of trees, many of them old-growth, were found to have been logged in breach of almost every section of the Code.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) was called in and a team of investigators descended on the property, spending 3 days documenting the reported breaches. Shortly thereafter, the new landowner received an email from the EPA stating: “We did carry out further inspections of your property yesterday. We focused on consolidating on (taking further waypoints, measurements, notes and photographs) what we observed with you on 21.09.18 in area A. We also inspected sites that you previously visited and earmarked as potential breaches of the PNF Code. So far we have recorded a range of breaches, many of which have been repeated across the landscape. 

This was good news, but as the months passed without further word, memories of past disappointments over the EPA's failure to regulate the logging industry, flooded back. The months dragged into years, and a week before the 2 year statute of limitations was reached, the landowner received the bad news that the EPA had closed the case, stating: “Although the EPA identified that there were potential breaches of the PNF Code of Practice, it was not possible to identify the responsible party to the requisite level of proof”.

What a load of balloney! The property owners operated a sawmill on the property for years, up until the land changed hands. How can it possibly be claimed that because nobody actually witnessed the trees being cut down, that no one could be held responsible?

Things have to change but I'm not holding my breath, and I fear recent EPA stop work orders over alleged illegal logging in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest will likewise end in disappointment.

            - John Edwards

This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on August 17 ,  2020.

ADEQUACY OF NSW ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS

When it comes to reporting breaches of environmental laws, many are reluctant to contact the relevant authorities directly, fearing a lack of confidentiality.

The recommended avenue for reporting such breaches is through the EnviroLine where the operators, despite assurances of confidentiality, then request contact details in case investigating officers require further information.

Local environment groups provide an avenue for those who wish to remain anonymous, which saw one such recent report, alerting us to extensive under-scrubbing of forest north of Grafton.

Under-scrubbing is the process of bulldozing all under-storey vegetation, leaving only larger trees, and in this instance, not only had tens of thousands of native trees, shrubs and other plants been bulldozed, but many of the remaining trees had been damaged in the process. That scarring invariably leads to an early death by fire. The bulldozed vegetation was heaped into windrows some three metres high ready for burning, further damaging and/or killing nearby standing trees.

The cleared area is known to support Koalas, an iconic species that is in serious decline and facing extinction. The State Government is proudly reporting the spending of millions of dollars protecting them, so surely this clearing couldn't possibly be legal.

In this instance the EPA acted promptly, and responded to the complaint within days, explaining the clearing had in fact been approved. While that in itself was hard to believe, the reason given for the destruction was even harder to fathom. That, they informed us, was to enhance grazing potential!

The land in question has very low fertility soils, incapable of growing pasture so, in a good year, might support one bullock to 5 hectares. It seems unlikely therefore, that grazing was the objective, but allowable “thinning” for that purpose provided the justification.

The end result will be the loss of some 90% of the forest's biodiversity, serious erosion potential in the short term, and a guaranteed weed invasion over the longer term.

At a time when we desperately require more trees and forests to sequester carbon, these decisions make no environmental, social or economic sense.

            - John Edwards

This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on July 20 ,  2020.

BUSHFIRE SURVIVORS TAKE LEGAL ACTION

Any notion that climate change is an issue that could be dealt with effectively in some distant future has been shown to be untenable given events of the past few years.  Extreme weather events, severe droughts and longer and more catastrophic bushfire seasons have shown more people that there is a connection between these events and the growing  carbon emissions in the earth’s atmosphere.

Australians concerned about climate change are becoming increasingly frustrated with the ostrich-like attitudes of many of their politicians and government agencies.

One group which is taking legal action in an attempt to force a NSW government agency to do more on climate change is Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action which is taking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to court because of its failure to better protect communities. 

Jo Dodds, president of the group, says that all its members have experienced a bushfire at first hand.  They believe that climate change is a major contributing factor to the cause and growing intensity of bushfires in Australia.

She said that the issue isn’t being taken seriously enough and “There’s a sense that the bushfires are over and we can get back to normal life after COVID-19 – but the fires are going to come harder and more frequently.”

The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is representing the group. 

David Morris, the EDO chief executive, said the EPA had “a statutory mandate to protect the environment … but the EPA don’t have a current policy to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

“Those two things can’t co-exist.

“We’re simply asking the court to tell the EPA go and create environmental quality objectives with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, regulate the pollution and use their existing powers to do so.”

According to the EDO the EPA is in a unique position.  As an agency “with teeth”, it has the power to issue licences to control pollution, as well as putting caps and prices on substances which are harmful to the environment.

The case is listed in the NSW Land and Environment Court in Sydney on May 8.

            - Leonie Blain

This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on April 27,  2020