Renewed calls for forest logging ban as greater glider sails towards extinction

Once plentiful in forests around Eurobodalla and the South Coast, greater gliders are now at risk of extinction after being declared endangered by the Federal Government this week.

Once plentiful in forests around Eurobodalla and the South Coast, greater gliders are now at risk of extinction after being declared endangered by the Federal Government this week.

The largest of the gliding possums, the greater glider species once inhabited much of Australia’s east coast, from Mossman in Far North Queensland to Daylesford in southeast Victoria, but after years of bushfires and logging operations, its populations in NSW have dwindled.

Activists say an end to native forest logging in NSW is the key to their survival.

“The listing of the greater glider, the largest tree-dwelling mammal after koalas, is terrible news but sadly not surprising considering how our forests are being managed,” Nature Conservation Council NSW chief executive Chris Gambian said.

“The NSW Government kept logging forests smashed by the Black Summer bushfires and those that became precious refuges for koalas and gliders that fled the flames.

“Our forests are beset by problems ranging from climate change and mega fires to invasive species. Some of these things are beyond the NSW government’s power, but not logging.”

An orphaned greater glider while being cared for at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary after a fox killed his mother. Picture: Adam Head

In the past year, numerous vulnerable native species have been listed as endangered in NSW, including the yellow-bellied glider and the gang-gang cockatoo, with increased protections also being implemented to help struggling koala populations.

While the local Eurobodalla Shire Council is in the process of implementing programs to track and repopulate those species, Mr Gambian said an immediate end to the Forestry Corporation of NSW’s logging operations in native forests would be the quickest remedy.

“Logging of native forests is a clear and present threat to all species which have been struggling since the devastating Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20,” he said.

“The NSW Government could remove possibly the most immediate threat to our forests and to the greater glider simply by phasing out native forest logging once and for all.”

In just the last month, FCNSW has copped more than $500,000 in fines for its operations across NSW, including in the Eurobodalla Shire.

In June, the state-owned organisation was fined $15,000 by the NSW EPA, the largest fine available to regulators, for the alleged felling of a hollow tree in South Brooman State Forest in the Eurobodalla Shire in 2020.

The agency was slapped with another $230,000 in fines later that month after the NSW Land and Environment Court found them guilty of illegal forestry activity in an exclusion zone at Dampier State Forest near Bodalla, potentially threatening at-risk bat species there.

South Coast MLC Justin Field has been vocal in his criticism of habitat loss in NSW and agreed rules around logging in the state needed to change, including the regional forestry agreements, but said a blanket ban to native logging wasn’t necessary the answer.

“I think there is a future for native forest logging done in a boutique way, with high value products from private native forests,” he said.

“But, there is no argument for logging of public native forests.

“Not when the majority of that timber goes towards cheap export for paper production in Japan.

“That’s a crazy use of such an important resource.”

Mr Field said there seemed to be no legal mechanism in place to prevent crucial koala and glider habitat being destroyed, and argued the onus should be on FCNSW to conserve remaining ecosystems in the wake of the recommencement of logging following the Black Summer fires.

“Large hollow bearing trees which are used by the gliders should be protected by law,” he said.

“It takes more than 150 years to form hollows of a size sufficient for a large mammal to live in, like the greater glider. The animals can’t sit around and wait 100 or 200 years for that to these trees to be replaced.

“We need a plan for generating the next generation of large hollow bearing trees. They’re a critical ecological resource, and the government is just not taking it seriously.”

While logging accounts for much of the habitat destruction, Mr Field also highlighted the dangers posed by new housing projects.

A rapidly expanding population and an ongoing housing crisis on the South Coast have given new energy to housing projects, many of which are slated to be built in native forest areas, such as one proposed for Dalmeny on the Far South Coast.

“We have this crazy situation with housing development proposals where it was what’s called proponents development,” Mr Field said.

“The proponent pitches this idea, and they will often able to buy up cheap, forested land.

An orphaned greater glider. Picture: Adam Heads

“But, if we were actually designing a community we wouldn‘t build them because there’s a really important ecological resource there.”

Mr Field argued that there should be no new greenfield developments on the South Coast.

“We shouldn’t be destroying the mature forests for housing development, there is more than enough disturbed land for development,” he said.

“Often these projects are primarily about holiday houses and not about housing for local people and local business needs.”

With the recent change in Federal Government, Mr Field was hopeful the listing might instigate real action.

“The intention is that these listings then result in a management plan that is developed to improve the conservation outcomes for a particular species, but under the last government that just didn’t happen,” he said.

“I hope the new federal environment minister will look at this seriously.

“But, you can’t come up with a management plan for the greater glider while the regional forestry agreements, which effectively exempts logging from federal environment or sort of in fire in federal environment law … until you open that up and actually change it, then there’s very little that the federal environment law is going to do to prevent the logging of large hollow bearing trees and that’s just not good enough.

“That has to be stopped. We need that to be made illegal.”

In a statement, FCNSW said it welcomed any measures to protect greater gliders and said they had been actively working to research and protect the species for many years prior to this listing.

“In the small area managed for renewable timber production, we invest in surveying, monitoring and protecting greater glider populations with numerous targeted surveys undertaken in our forests since the 2019-20 bushfires, which did show encouraging results with gliders detected in both burnt and unburnt forests,” a spokesperson said.

“Importantly in every tree harvesting operation we apply strict conditions that were developed by expert scientific panels to protect the habitat of species such as the greater glider. These conditions form part of the Integrated Forestry Operations Approval, which the Environment Protection Authority closely regulates.”

The greater glider, also known as the clumsy possum. Picture: supplied.

IFCNSW said that as “responsible forest managers”, they continually reviewed their practices in response to new data and information and would take the time to consider the latest advice from the Federal Government in regard to threatened species and would ensure their forest management practices remain appropriate.

In response to the fines, FCNSW said that since the time of the infringements, they had increased their focus on compliance with additional resources on the ground for planning and monitoring.

“We are committed to complying with the stringent ruleset and minimising any environmental impact from operations so that the forests regenerate and provide both wildlife habitat and timber supply for future generations,” they said.

“Since the 2019-20 bushfires, we have also adopted additional environmental safeguards above the requirements of the strict ruleset in place in NSW, including setting aside additional areas from harvesting in feed tree clumps and landscape exclusions and undertaking additional landscape surveys. These measures remain in place today.”

In response to questions from The South Coast News, a spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Environment said that local council identified areas that could support new growth through their Local Housing Strategies and Local Strategic Planning Statements.

“Any proposal to rezone land must consider all environmental impacts and is subject to a rigorous assessment that includes community consultation and expert advice,” the spokesperson said.

“Further detailed assessment and community consultation is undertaken at the development application stage before any development can occur.”

A spokesperson for the EPA said agency had stepped up its compliance efforts pre-, during, and post-harvesting to ensure FCNSW was complying with the Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals, including to protect large hollow bearing trees.