Bob Brown Foundation is calling for the immediate removal of logging machines from a critical greater glider habitat on New South Wales’ south coast and urgent protection of native forests.
‘Logging machinery has moved into Glenbog State Forest, south-east of Cooma, one of the most ecologically significant forests in southern New South Wales. If Forestry Corporation NSW proceed with logging, it will destroy a wildlife haven that urgently needs protection,’ said Doro Babeck, Bob Brown Foundation’s NSW Campaigner.
‘The forest is a critical refuge for the nationally endangered greater glider. The hard work of citizen scientists over the last few weeks has identified 102 active den trees in the proposed logging area, while Forestry Corporation recorded just four.
‘Citizen scientists also found one yellow-bellied glider den, six large stick nests and 666 wombat burrows,’ said Ms Babeck.
Wilful disregard
Bob Brown Foundation says Forestry Corporation’s wilful disregard for its regulatory duty to properly survey and protect endangered species before logging shows, once again, that it cannot be trusted to manage our state forests.
‘The overwhelming majority of Australians want forests protected, not reduced to devastated landscapes of debris, stripped of wildlife and ecological value,’ said Doro Babeck.
‘Premier Minns must end native forest logging now. There is no justification for continuing to ignore the biodiversity crisis unleashed by logging across our public lands.’
Bob Brown Foundation citizen scientist Heidi Lincoln added, ‘Glenbog also contains some of the highest wombat densities in southern NSW, with logging operations resulting in many animals being buried alive in their burrows.
‘We have conducted surveys over many months, and our findings clearly demonstrate the inadequacy of Forestry’s own surveys. We have found twenty-five times as many greater glider den trees,’ she said.
‘To think that Forestry would readily log this forest based on their incompetent survey methods is deeply distressing. It’s well past time the native forest industry is shut down,’ said Ms Lincoln.
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