Forest campaigners have today stopped work in the Styx River State Forest north east of Armidale to protect a Greater Glider and its home.
The Glider is one of several that have been found by citizen scientists, while the NSW Forestry Corporation have reportedly found none.
A Greater Glider has been filmed entering it’s den, with nine glider records in total being found in the compartment as of Monday night.
Activists are currently protecting the Glider and its den with a tree-sit which is tied off to the logging machinery preventing contractors from operating.
‘They haven’t found any Gliders because, as they have admitted, they only look for the nocturnal gliders during the day, and hence don’t see them or find their home den trees,’ a spokesperson for the group said.
‘If they don’t find them, they don’t have to protect them. It’s a classic forestry move and one of the reasons so many forest animal species are on a trajectory to extinction as their habitat is being wiped out by more and more destructive logging practices.’
The Environmental Protection Agency has previously issued Stop Work Orders in two forests in Southern NSW when they were shown Greater Glider den trees, that get a 50m protection buffer.
‘We are calling on the EPA to come here and see for themselves. Here’s a Greater Glider in its tree hollow home, it should have a protective buffer around it but it’s got nothing,’ the spokesperson said.
‘It’s not good enough. EPA have known for months now that Forestry Corporation are not looking for Gliders. They should have stopped work in every logging operation where there are Glider records until the proper surveys were carried out.’
The activists say the State Government must explain why the Forestry Corporation is continuing to flout the legal requirements to look for and protect Gliders, and needs to explain why EPA hasn’t made it clear that it’s not a choice, it’s a pre-logging requirement.
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