Native forest logging is again in the spotlight in NSW, following Monday night’s Four Corners investigation into Forestry Corporation NSW’s failure to protect nationally endangered species.
The program highlighted Forestry Corporation’s failure to properly identify and protect threatened species habitat, and the critical role citizen scientists are playing in finding greater glider den trees, wombat burrows and other threatened species records before logging occurs.
Scott Daines, spokesperson for South East Forest Rescue, who featured in the program, said it was important to see national attention on the role citizen scientists are playing.
‘Since 2023, citizen scientists have identified 2,077 greater glider den trees in forests where Forestry Corporation recorded just 97,’ he said.
‘Recently, citizen scientists recorded more greater glider den trees in a single weekend than Forestry Corporation NSW has identified since 2023. This demonstrates the manifest failure of Forestry Corporation to fulfil its obligations to protect threatened species habitat.’
Failing system
Forest Alliance NSW spokesperson Clancy Barnard said the findings showed the current system was failing.
‘It should not fall to citizen scientists to find and protect endangered species habitat that Forestry Corporation should have identified before logging was ever allowed to begin,’ Mr Barnard said.
‘We are calling for the immediate protection of core greater glider strongholds where citizen scientists have already found significant denning habitat, and where proper surveys would likely identify so many den trees that logging could not lawfully proceed across large areas.
[see list of forests below].
‘These forests represent only 2-3 per cent of the logging estate. Protecting them is a reasonable and proportionate response to Forestry Corporation’s failure to identify and protect greater glider habitat.’
The calls come as North East Forest Alliance citizen scientists identified the nationally endangered Kate’s leaf-tailed gecko inside a logging area in Mount Belmore State Forest, south west of Casino.
‘The discovery of an endangered Kate’s Leaf-tailed Gecko in a logging area is yet another reminder that you cannot protect species if you don’t look for them,’ said Dailan Pugh OAM, President of the North East Forest Alliance.
‘Again and again, citizen scientists are finding threatened species in forests that have already been approved for logging. This is yet more evidence the system is failing.’
Wombats
Marie Wynan, wombat carer from Jarake Wildlife Sanctuary, said that citizen science also demonstrated the need to protect wombats.
The call follows revelations that logging machinery has been collapsing wombat burrows, burying wombats and their joeys alive and causing them to suffocate underground.
‘Every wombat burrow should be surveyed before logging begins, and every active or substantial burrow should be protected with an enforceable 20-metre radius exclusion zone.
‘Forestry Corporation is already required to protect wombat burrows in parts of north-east NSW, with 20-metre exclusion zones around burrows longer than one metre. If the rules already recognise that wombat burrows need protection in one part of NSW, they should not leave wombats exposed elsewhere,’ Ms Wynan said.
Forest Alliance NSW is calling for
- The immediate protection of core greater glider strongholds including Glenbog, Badja, Tallaganda, Tuggalo, Bulga, Enfield, Giro, Barrington Tops, Brother, Styx River, Glen Elgin, Gibraltar Range, Moogem, Dingo,Glenbog and Riamukka state forests.
- The introduction of 20-metre radius exclusion zones around wombat burrows, to ensure wombats and their joeys do not suffocate after being buried alive by logging machinery.
- An end to native forest logging in NSW.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
