Logging of Tallaganda State Forest on the South Coast by the NSW Forestry Corporation has been further postponed until 13 November 2023 following the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) recording 89 endangered Southern Greater Gliders and 20 den trees in areas that are the subject of planned industrial logging.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the Environment Sue Higginson said “The temporary stop work order that was issued in August has been proven justified following the formal recording of 89 endangered Greater Gliders in Tallaganda,
“The NSW Forestry Corporation failed to conduct the required assessments for known species in Tallaganda. They are ignoring their duties to survey habitat for known species and if it weren’t for community action, the NSW Government would have let them get away with it. This is a systemic problem and is not limited to Tallaganda, we are destroying threatened species habitats, including Greater Glider and Koala habitat, across the entire NSW public forest estate,”
“The ecological surveys that inform logging operations in NSW can be up to 10 years old for some forests and most full species surveys were undertaken before the 2019/20 bushfires that caused massive loss to plant and animal species. We cannot expect that these ecological surveys are still accurate and it turns out that the Forestry Corporation is disregarding them anyway,”
“I have written to both the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for the Environment to ask that they order ecological surveys to be undertaken in native forests that are subject to logging plans and to recognise the extent that the logging of native forests is directly contributing to the severity of fires and floods in NSW. No other proponent in NSW is allowed to undertake environmentally harmful activities at such a scale without undertaking full ecological surveys, so why is the Forestry Corporation being allowed to,”
“It is a massive relief to know that the Greater Gliders of Talleganda are being spared destruction, but the reality is they, along with other threatened species, are being destroyed elsewhere across the public forest estate. Greater Gliders were listed as endangered last year but the fact is we do not yet have a clear understanding of the real conservation status of the species. The EPA has identified that Greater Gliders are an important indicator species that are critical to identify and protect, to ensure that other forest dependent species are also protected. Greater Gliders and their den trees were already surveyed in Tallaganda, but they are also recorded in many state forests that are being logged without any requirement to check for animals or retain habitat trees,”
“The NSW Government must act or their no new extinction policy will fail. There must be comprehensive and independent ecological surveys undertaken before any logging in native forests is allowed to commence. Without this protection, the Forestry Corporation will continue to log areas that are critical for plants and animals that are threatened with extinction,” Ms Higginosn said
