Environmental groups are calling for an immediate halt to logging in Tallaganda State Forest, southern New South Wales, after discovering a "crucial" habitat for the endangered greater glider.
Key points:
- The World Wildlife Fund has been working to install nest boxes for greater gliders in an area of the Tallaganda State Forest
- The area was left unscathed by the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020 and conservationists say it is home to a dense population of gliders
- The trees are being logged by the Forestry Corporation of NSW, which says protections are in place for 400 gliders and their habitat
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been working in the forest, about 80 kilometres west of Batemans Bay, after discovering an area left unscathed by the Black Summer bushfires.
The group said it had discovered dozens of the large marsupials and a "stronghold" of habitat for them.
Doctor Kita Ashman has been working to install nest boxes for the animals in the area.
"It's a place where I've observed the highest densities of gliders than I've ever seen all up and down the east coast," she said.
"The guts of Tallaganda remained largely unburnt [during the 2019-20 fires], which meant that that patch of forest has acted basically as a refuge or a stronghold for that species.
"It's an area where those gliders that survived the fires could act as a source population into the surrounding landscape that got burnt."
Calls for logging 'cessation'
The greater glider is known as Australia's largest gliding mammal, and its habitat stretches along the eastern seaboard through Victoria, NSW, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory.
It is currently listed as endangered by the federal government.
According to the WWF, its numbers have declined by up to 80 per cent in some areas over the last 20 years due to factors like bushfires and logging.
The Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) is currently logging sections of the state forest, which the WWF and Wilderness Australia say is destroying the crucial habitat.
"In the immediate instance, we're asking for a cessation of logging in Tallaganda," Dr Ashman said.
"What is most horrifying is that this is all able to happen because our nature laws are weak enough to allow this to happen."
FCNSW said the operation in Tallaganda State Forest had been carefully planned in line with environmental obligations.
A spokesperson said "intensive" surveys were undertaken to identify and map sensitive habitat before logging commenced, and almost 400 greater gliders had been identified in the forest.
"This shows that the active management of forests under these rules, in concert with surrounding protected areas, is supporting greater glider populations," the FCNSW spokesperson said.
"During this operation in Tallaganda State Forest, harvesting will only be occurring within 35 per cent of the gross area, with many areas set aside for protection."
EPA reviewing operations
The WWF and Wilderness Australia have lodged a complaint with the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA), seeking an immediate halt to logging.
Former NSW environment minister, and now chair of Wildnerness Australia, Bob Debus, said the EPA needed to step in.
"We are asking that work be stopped and that proper, decent, and publicly available surveys should be made in order to tell us what kind of damage logging would do to the glider population," he said.
He said Wilderness Australia members had conducted their own surveys of the forest, finding dozens of "den" trees used by the gliders and spotting a "dense" population of them.
"It's clear that the logging will take away large sections of the habitat of what appears to be a very dense population of gliders," Mr Debus said.
The EPA said it received the complaint yesterday, and that it might be better for the WWF to take their concerns directly to FCNSW.
"The complaint did not allege any non-compliance with current laws, however, we will review the operations and will work closely with WWF and FCNSW on the matters raised to ensure appropriate outcomes are achieved," an EPA spokesperson said.