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.

 

UNSUSTAINABLE WOOD FROM NSW PUBLIC HARDWOOD FORESTS

According to the official corporate ‘blurb’, our state forest manager, Forestry Corporation (FC), claims, among other things, to produce sustainable hardwood timber from native forests.

This message has long been projected by the industry, but what does it really mean by “sustainable”? Certainly, their hardwood operations in state forests fail to sustain biodiversity, despite their being responsible for managing a million hectares of NSW’s state forests for conservation.

The term managing in this case is fairly loose, and essentially means they no longer plan to log those forests. There is no physical management of any note, such as weed or feral animal control, so much of that million-hectare estate is currently clogged with exotic weeds.

Is the hardwood division economically sustainable? Again, with that division recording multi-million-dollar losses annually for the last 20 years, the answer again has to be no.

Is the quantity of timber supplied sustainable? In that respect the industry’s record over the past 230 years is abysmal. It took only 50 years to drive the majestic Red Cedar to virtual extinction, then another 50 years to do likewise to the iconic Hoop Pine, using them for box wood, and they were only saved from further exploitation by the development of cardboard cartons and plastic crates.

 At Gibberagee State Forest, where the government is currently allowing FC to log koala feed trees by the hundreds, the harvest plan’s estimated yield makes for interesting reading.

 From the 325 hectares of available forest, FC expects to harvest a mere 1,118m³ of high-quality large sawlogs; 956m³ of high-quality small sawlogs, and  31m³ of “poles, piles, and girders. However, by far the largest component of the expected yield is 1,388m³ described as “low-quality salvage”. I imagine that’s wood which is only good for woodchip or burning to generate electricity.

Over the decades log sizes have progressively decreased and for small logs today, 15cm diameter at the small end, less than 30% of that wood is salvaged.

 Native forest logging has never been sustainable, and it’s time to put an end to it.

 

-        John Edwards

Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent  21st June 2023 under the title "Unsustainable Wood".

 

LOGGING LAWS IN NSW STATE FORESTS MUST BE ENFORCED

In a recent media release the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) called on the state government to restore the rights of the public to take the Forestry Corporation to court in order to enforce environmental laws.

“If the Baird Government refuses to enforce the logging rules, then let us do it,” said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“For years we have been finding the same sorts of logging offences, time after time.  The Forestry Corporation are being allowed to flout environmental laws with impunity.  The Environmental Protection Authority’s (EPAs) lax regulation is clearly not working. “

Mr Pugh referred to breaches NEFA had identified in the forests of the North Coast and the slowness of the EPA in responding to its breach  reports.

He said NEFA ‘s audits showed that environmental laws were being broken constantly and pointed out that, as 20,000 hectares of NSW’s public forests are logged every year, both the scale of the breaches and the damage from them is immense.

In 1998 the public’s right to take the Forestry authority to court was removed with the promise that the EPA would take over regulating and policing the Forestry authority. According to Mr Pugh the EPA has been a dismal failure.

The failure of the EPA to enforce the environmental regulations is leading to destruction of old growth trees, damage to waterways, and failure to protect the habitat of koalas and other threatened species.

A major concern is the failure to protect tree hollows.  NEFA particularly has fears for the future of 70 species (28%) of vertebrates that depend on tree hollows in northern NSW as well as numerous species, such as koalas, which prefer to feed on older trees.

It points out that a eucalypt takes 120-180 years to develop hollows and more than 220 years to develop the large hollows needed for large animals.  This means that large old growth trees are priceless treasures.

Is it lack of will or lack of resources which has made the EPA a “dismal failure” in enforcing environmental regulations in our forests?  There’s an urgent need for a change. 

            - Leonie Blain

This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on December 5, 2016