As the pressure mounts from the NSW Labor state government to increase the amount and density of housing, and as a result increase the population, across the Northern Rivers the impact on wildlife will continue to grow.
Therefore the $1.5 million in new funding provided to Northern Rivers wildlife care facilities will provide some help to animals that need assistance following the increasing impacts that cars, dogs, cats and ongoing repercussions of human dominance of the landscape inevitably lead to.
Janelle Saffin, the local Member for Lismore has announced $1.5 million in new funding provided to Northern Rivers wildlife care facilities. The bulk of the money, $1.4 million, has been allocated to complete building the Northern Rivers Wildlife Hospital in Wollongbar. Other grants include $110,000 to Friends of the Koala (FOK) to develop a koala database and vaccinate 300 koalas against chlamydia.
‘The licensing and funding to administer the chlamydia vaccine to koalas marks a significant leap forward in safeguarding our local population,’ said a FOK spokesperson.
‘We have recently seen a decline in community and corporate donations. We will continue to meet with the NSW Government to discuss ongoing support, but it will take all levels of government, corporate and philanthropic support to help us save this iconic species.’
Grants totalling $460,000 have been awarded to Lismore City, Tweed Shire, Ballina Shire, Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley councils for signage to alert drivers to slow down and watch for koalas in vehicle strike hotspots.
‘The Northern Rivers Wildlife Hospital is wonderful. We have already turned the first sod but this $1.4 million in funding ensures its place within our network of native wildlife care,’ said Member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin.
No commitment to end native forest logging
‘Our local communities love our iconic koalas and the $110,000 in funding will help protect them against chlamydia, and importantly, keep track of them. FOK in East Lismore is a fantastic organisation, professional, with compassionate and competent volunteers.
‘I am proud to have advocated for and secured funding for these projects and very pleased to join Minister Sharpe to announce them here in the electorate.’
Minister for Climate Change and the Environment Penny Sharp said, ‘It is important that koalas have a bright future in NSW’.
The press release from Saffin and Sharp’s offices said ‘The NSW government is committed ensuring the long-term survival of koalas in the wild and each partnership with councils, land managers, community organisation and wildlife groups is an important step toward achieving that goal. Koala habitat restoration is also underway in the Northern Rivers region, with $810,000 invested to restore 660 hectares across private land and national park estate.’
However, neither ministers chose to address the fact that the NSW Labor government has continued to allow native forestry logging throughout the state, even post the 2019/20 Black summer bushfires that destroyed significant areas of koala habitat. The native forestry logging continues to have a significant impact on both the habitat of koalas and other endangered species throughout the Northern Rivers and the state. Both Victoria and WA banned commercial native forest logging from 1 January 2024.
Ms Sharp said that, ‘The NSW Government is taking steps to prevent koalas needing to be in veterinary care, and this funding helps to ensure that native wildlife have the best possible outcome when treated, and returned to the wild.’
Ban logging and ban air b and bs simple as that if you want to save koalas plus of course keeping dogs away from koala habitat and indentify where koalas cross roads and put strategies in place such as under ground tunnels or overhead wires to help them cross roads safely
And what do the Koalas do for us to justify all that effort and sacrifice?
What do we do for the koalas to justify our mass exploitation of the world’s landscape and resources – way beyond our fair share.
What do the Koalas do for the trees they strip? The trees are harmed by their fresh new baby leaves, that they rely on for survival, being strip mined and exploited ruthlessly by a parasite spiecies that the trees can’t defend themselves from. Leaves are a tree’s solar panels. Would you advocate for someone that ran around smashing the solar panels on everyone’s roofs for their own profit?
Its all too hard for you to learn up about the Koala, a species that lives in harmony and balance within the natural environment.
The only ‘strip mining’ going on is done by the stupid species aka Humans and clearly you’ve led that activity from the front, having strip mined your own head of rational thought.
For a supposed science boffin, you show a remarkable lack of a grasp of biology and ecology.
Each glacial period in this ice age has had less atmospheric CO2 to the point that photosynthesis almost shut down completely during the last one, causing these deserts we now have (look it up). Our life-saving coal is making the deserts bloom again, and all you deniers have to offer is Koala apologetics. Do you even realise we are in an ice age that has caused repeated mass extinctions, including wiping out Australia’s megafauna? wiki: Quaternary glaciation