Greater glider discovery prompts call for change to pre-logging surveys

Elise Kinsella

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 17 Feb 2016

 

Skilful in the air, but awkward on land - the greater glider, or clumsy possum as it is otherwise known, is having a big impact on the logging wars in Victoria's East Gippsland.

PHOTO: The Goongerah Environment Centre reportedly found 15 protected Greater Glider possums.

Last week the state's logger, VicForests, agreed to lock up 100 hectares of forest after environmentalists discovered 15 of the gliders.

Environmentalists argue VicForests has not done a good enough job at surveying the forests for protected rare and threatened species, so they are conducting their own surveys in other areas.

The Goongerah Environment Centre have completed a night search for the clumsy possum's smaller mate, the yellow-bellied glider.

In the remote Kuark forest, outside of Orbost, the centre's Ed Hill plays recordings of the powerful owl, a predator of the glider, to see if he could hear the frightened response.

"It's been a really successful survey," Mr Hill said.

"We've recorded 10 yellow-bellied gliders on our transect, which is fantastic. That's enough to get this area of forest protected."

The Goongerah Environment Centre wants to see Victoria's Environment Minister Lisa Neville hand over responsibility for these ecological surveys to an independent body, not VicForests.

They argue the logging body simply is not doing a good enough job.

Ms Neville said in a statement: "The Government is disappointed to see that rare and threatened species may have been impacted by the harvesting operations in question, if this community generated information had not been made available.

"We are currently working to ensure that in the future we are guided by the best available data, which will help improve decision making."

VicForests communications manager David Walsh said the logger would also be changing how it surveyed forests.

"VicForests wouldn't have found them [the animals] ourselves in that particular site, and as a result of that type of occurrence and information coming to us, we're now reviewing our overall approach to targeted pre-harvest fauna surveys for species like greater gliders," he said.

He said his organisation would consider any information it was given about the yellow-bellied glider.

Environmentalists accuse state logger of forest survey conflict of interest

AM, ABC Radio 17/02/2016


MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Skilful in the air, but awkward on land - the greater glider, or clumsy possum as it's otherwise known, is having a big impact on East Gippsland's logging wars.

Just last week the state's logger VicForests agreed to lock up 100 hectares of forest after environmentalists discovered 15 of the gliders.

Environmentalists argue VicForests hasn't done a good enough job at surveying the forests for protected rare and threatened species, so they're conducting their own surveys in other areas. 

Journalist Elise Kinsella joined the Goongerah Environment Centre's Ed Hill during a night search for the clumsy possum's smaller mate, the yellow-bellied glider.

(Crickets chirp)

ELISE KINSELLA: It's the dark of night here in the remote Kuark forest, outside of Orbost. We're about to play a recording of the powerful owl, a predator of the glider, to see if we can hear a frightened response.

(Sound owl with distant possum response)

Ed, that second sound we heard after the recorded owl noise, that screech in the background - that's what we were after?

ED HILL: Yeah that's it, it's that low guttural, kind of... it's quite a distinct sound, and that's what we're looking for. So we record the direction that we've heard that call coming from and we estimate the distance.

(Sound of footsteps crunching)

ELISE KINSELLA: Ed, we were walking down a fairly dark, straight patch of road, we heard a noise to our right and looked up. Do you want to explain what we saw?

ED HILL: We just saw a yellow bellied glider just glide right above our heads just across the road and land in a tree. It's really, really lucky to see these animals actually gliding.

ELISE KINSELLA: We're walking back to the car, what's been the final result of tonight's survey? 

ED HILL: It's been a really successful survey. We've recorded 10 yellow-bellied gliders on our transect, which is fantastic. That's enough to get this area of forest protected.

ELISE KINSELLA: Environmentalists want to see Victoria's Environment Minister Lisa Neville hand over responsibility for these ecological surveys to an independent body, not VicForests.

They argue the logging body simply isn't doing a good enough job.

The ABC asked Ms Neville how much confidence she has that VicForests isn't logging protected species and habitat, after the discovery of 15 greater gliders in a separate section of forest. 

She replied with this statement: 

LISA NEVILLE'S STATEMENT: The Government is disappointed to see that rare and threatened species may have been impacted by the harvesting operations in question, if this community generated information had not been made available. We are currently working to ensure that in the future we are guided by the best available data, which will help improve decision making.

ELISE KINSELLA: VicForests communications manager, David Walsh, says the logger will also be changing how it surveys forest.

DAVID WALSH: Look, VicForests wouldn't have found them ourselves in that particular site and as a result of that type of occurrence and information coming to us, we're now reviewing our overall approach to targeted pre-harvest fauna surveys for species like greater gliders.

ELISE KINSELLA: He says his organisation will consider any information it's given about the survey for the yellow bellied glider. 


MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Elise Kinsella with that report.

Environmentalists sue over threat to owls

Bridie Smith, Science Editor

The Age, September 22, 2014

Vulnerable ... the powerful owl. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

Environmentalists are suing the state government for failing to look after three threatened species of owl found in key logging areas of Gippsland.

Green group Environment East Gippsland launched the legal action in the Supreme Court on Monday, alleging the Department of Environment and Primary Industries and VicForests had failed to set aside areas in the Gippsland Forest to protect the powerful, sooty and masked owls.

Environment East Gippsland co-ordinator Jill Redwood said the Goongerah-Deddick fires in January and February this year burnt 170,000 hectares of forest. Legally, the government was required to review and secure replacement forest areas considered as suitable habitat for the owls, she said.

A four-year-old masked owl. The species is listed as endangered. Photo: Sandy Scheltema

The powerful and sooty owls are listed as vulnerable and the masked owl as endangered, according to Victoria's Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.

Action statements for the management of the powerful and masked owls state each species requires at least 100 areas of 500 hectares each, while the sooty owl needs 131 areas of at least 500 hectares.

"The government is in total contempt of their own laws," Ms Redwood said. "When you get a response from the minister that shows they are more devoted to the logging industry than to the law that says we need to protect our threatened wildlife, then there's nowhere else to go but the courts."

Ms Redwood said East Gippsland was considered a stronghold for the owls because the age of the forest meant it was ideal habitat for the birds of prey.

"They need that vast area of old-growth hollow trees because they prey on gliders like the greater glider and the yellow-bellied glider,"she said.

VicForests spokesman David Walsh said there was currently no logging taking place in any of the four coupes mentioned in the writ, although harvesting was forecast for 2015. However, he said VicForests was keen to work with Environment East Gippsland to resolve any concerns the group had.

A spokesman for the Department of Environment and Primary Industries said the government was committed to ensuring the state's native forests were managed to ensure threatened species and other native flora and fauna were protected.
"The department has a comprehensive framework in place to protect native species during timber harvesting operations, including forestry management plans and a code of practice for timber harvesting operations," the spokesman said.

Indonesia overtakes Brazil in clearing tropical forests resulting in habitat loss and animal extinction, scientists claim

PHOTO: Sumatran orangutan Anita and her baby in their new habitat in the Singapore Zoo. Orangutans are one of the species whose habitat is being devastated by deforestation.(Nicky Loh: Reuters)

ABC News, 30 June 2014 

Satellite images have found that Indonesia has surpassed Brazil in clearing tropical forests, and losses are accelerating, scientists say.

That's despite a 2011 moratorium meant to protect wildlife and combat climate change.

Between 2000 and 2010, Indonesia's loss of virgin forests totalled 60,000 square kilometres, an area almost the size of Ireland, partly to make way for palm oil plantations and other farms, researchers say.

In 2012 alone, deforestation in Indonesia was estimated at 8,400 square kilometres, compared with 4,600 square kilometres in Brazil.

In 2012 alone, deforestation in Indonesia was estimated at 8,400 square kilometres, compared with 4,600 square kilometres in Brazil.

According to the study, deforestation in the Amazon basin in Brazil has traditionally accounted for the biggest losses, which the country has managed to reduce in recent years.

And it says the loss of primary forest areas is damaging global biodiversity.

"Indonesia's forests contain high floral and faunal biodiversity, including 10 percent of the world's plants, 12 percent of the world's mammals, 16 percent of the world's reptile-amphibians and 17 percent of the world's bird species," the study said, published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

"Extensive clearing of Indonesian primary forest cover directly results in habitat loss and associated plant and animal extinctions."

The research, lead by Belinda Margono of the University of Maryland, looked at long term satellite images.

Ms Margono says monitoring of clearing in Indonesia needs to be increased.

"We need to increase the law enforcement, the control in the area itself," Ms Margono said.

The study found lowland and wetland areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan were the worst affected.

Native fauna at risk

Indonesia's 2011 moratorium on forest clearing was imposed partly to slow deforestation that is ruining the habitats of orangutans, Sumatran tigers and other wildlife.

Norway has also promised $USD1 billion to Jakarta if forest losses are slowed.

It has already paid almost $50 million to Indonesia to help set up new institutions to reduce deforestation and says the study's findings strengthen reasons for the program.

Norwegian environment ministry spokeswoman, Gunhild Oland Santos-Nedrelid, says the partnership constitutes a strong financial incentive.

Norway will only start to handover large amounts of money to Indonesia if monitoring proves a slowdown in deforestation.

AFP/Reuters

Animals going extinct while millions in funding go squandered

The Sydney Morning Herald, 10/12/13

Animals are going extinct and millions of dollars in Australian endangered species funding are being squandered because of poor planning and monitoring, leading environmental scientists say.

If data on the welfare of an endangered species is collected, it is rarely analysed or acted on, said David Lindenmayer, one of the authors of an article in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. "Usually [monitoring] is the last thing funded and the first thing cut," said Professor Lindenmayer, an ecologist at the Australian National University. "It's quite shambolic, this whole area."

Things might be going well, they might be going badly. We'd never know

In Australia, only five of the 122 recovery plans for 191 listed species had defined ''trigger points'' for intervention in the event that an animal's population numbers or range dropped, the paper found.

One of those five species - the Christmas Island pipistrelle - had its status triggered to critically endangered after its population dived but the change made little difference and the bat is now believed to be extinct.

The greater glider was one example of a species monitored to local extinction. The marsupial was common in Booderee National Park in southern NSW when tracking began in 2003. By 2005 its population had dropped significantly and two years later it was gone entirely.

The original program had no trigger points requiring action even though the yellow-bellied glider had gone extinct in the park in the 1980s, the authors said in their paper, "Counting the books while the library burns".

The greater glider has also become extinct in Booderee. Photo: Taronga Zoo
Even where triggers for action exist - such as for Victoria's endangered fauna emblem, the Leadbeater's possum - the state government failed to act, Professor Lindenmayer said.

"Their plan of action is no action," he said.

Leaving it to the last 20-30 individual animals before acting was inefficient economically and ecologically, Professor Lindenmayer said. "You have to start doing very expensive things that are nearly always prone to failure, such as captive breeding."

Government programs without sufficient monitoring and action points included the National Heritage Trust and its successor body, Caring for our Country. The situation is even worse where mining and energy companies, and farmers, were left to monitor their own environmental damage.

"Things might be going well, they might be going badly. We'd never know," Professor Lindenmayer said.

Examples of successful programs include efforts to reduce the fox threat to species such as the eastern bristlebird in the Jervis Bay area and the yellow-footed rock wallaby in the Flinders Ranges.

When species become extinct, authorities should compile obituaries so lessons are learnt to help save other creatures at risk, Professor Lindenmayer said.

A state of extinction?

Bridie Smith, Science and Technology Reporter
The Age, December 7, 2012

Bushfires and logging have taken a terrible toll on the habitat of the rare Leadbeater's possum. How long can it survive? Bridie Smith and Tom Arup report.

The critically endangerd Leadbeater possum. Photo: Angela Wylie

THE ground squelches underfoot, the forest a mass of branches criss-crossing between the slender trunks of mountain swamp gum and the ferny undergrowth. This is Leadbeater's possum country. And one of the tiny critters is about to get a rude awakening.

It's late in the afternoon, but for the endangered nocturnal possum it's the middle of the night. Its round black eyes are fully alert by the time it has been scooped from its timber nest box high in a mountain swamp gum and popped into a brown cotton bag.

Still radiating the body heat it has generated and shared with its nest buddies, the young male is weighed and measured at ground level before being returned to his treetop home.

A clear-felled Leadbeater possum habitat in Victoria's central highlands. Photo: Justin McManus
The annual weigh-in, which also gathers genetic data, is a vital opportunity for biologists to check the health of Victoria's faunal emblem and one of the rarest mammals in the country.

But what the surveying scientists are increasingly finding is a species under stress. Fire has destroyed much of its habitat, and conservationists say logging is putting pressure on the rest.

Now there are serious suggestions Victoria is watching its animal emblem head towards extinction. And there are calls for intervention.

After studying the marsupial for more than three decades, ecologist David Lindenmayer gives the possum's survival in the wild just 20 years. ''If we don't seriously look at conserving these intact areas of forest, then that's all we've got,'' he says. ''This is the time to make sensible decisions and go for it.''

At the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, a small patch of swampy forest is home to the last remaining lowland population. As its habitat shrinks, the past eight years has seen a 40 per cent decline in Leadbeater's possum there. Numbering no more than 60, they are now concentrated in an area measuring just four kilometres by 120 metres.

The situation is not much better for the other, larger, population of Leadbeater's in the tall, cool, mountain ash forests of Victoria's central highlands. Exact highlands numbers are unknown, but are likely to be somewhere under 2000.

On Black Saturday, more than one-third of public land within the Leadbeater's highland habitat range was burnt. Studies by researchers at the Australian National University and the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research have found that Leadbeater's have not returned. Highland possums like to live deep in hollows of old trees, so young trees tend not to be suitable. Victoria's central highlands are dominated by young forest - 99 per cent of the trees are from 1939 or later - and just 1 per cent of the mountain ash forest is old growth.

Lindenmayer says the front line of the fight to save the endangered species is the mountain forest, and that if the young forest isn't allowed to age, the possum will vanish.

Here lies the problem. As fire and felling shrinks forests, competition for the remaining resources between loggers and conservationists has intensified to such an extent that the petite possum, which weighs no more than an apple, is now a hefty political problem.

''Leadbeater's possum is an iconic species, somewhat like Victoria's tiger or panda,'' says Dan Harley, Healesville Sanctuary's threatened species biologist.

The dilemma facing the state government is that it wants to provide the timber industry with resource security to meet its contracts. That means nominating areas for the protection of Leadbeater's and other threatened species, and allowing logging elsewhere.

Harley says there are some risks to this approach. First, it needs to be established where the possum's stronghold populations are.

''At the moment we are protecting sites based on habitat attributes, which makes perfect sense, but you need to know that the possums are in there and at the moment we don't have that information,'' he says.

Second, protecting some areas invariably leads to others being logged. Clearing these areas puts pressure on those remaining sites - which are still vulnerable to fires, such as those on Black Saturday were.

''What Black Saturday did was wipe out areas you thought were important and suddenly the marginal areas become increasingly significant,'' he says.

Experience points to how precarious possum populations can be. Black Saturday wiped out a Lake Mountain population of about 300, leaving just six individuals in a partly burnt gully, half of which died. The remaining three were taken to Healesville Sanctuary earlier this year, with two still living.

When the 2009 Black Saturday fires swept through the tall mountain ash forest in the central highlands, it was indiscriminate. It burnt 1939 regrowth, 15-year-old regrowth and areas of thick forest that date back to the 1700s.

Studies of the forest after the fires showed that the younger forest burned at a faster rate. While it sounds counter-intuitive, Professor Lindenmayer and his colleagues found that the complexity of older forests which have a dense understorey of wattle and tree ferns slowed the flames down. The microclimate was also more moist and burned at a lower intensity.

Victorian government data suggests the average annual gross area for timber harvest in the central highlands over the next four years will be 3547 hectares. The actual area felled is normally slightly less.

In the Supreme Court last year, conservationists challenged three proposed logging coupes in the central highlands on grounds they contravened protection protocols for Leadbeater's.

Justice Robert Osborn found the coupes did not breach the existing state possum protections. But he added there was strong evidence for an urgent review of areas dedicated to possums because the 2009 bushfires had dramatically changed the landscape.

At the same time there have been lengthy delays in strengthening state and federal government plans to restore Leadbeater's numbers to respond to the habitat loss.

Fairfax Media has obtained drafts of the revised state and national plans for the species dating back to 2009 and 2010, which are yet to be put in place. These plans note the massive reduction in habitat after the Black Saturday fires and put forward 25 measures to better protect the species, costing $4.6 million over five years on early estimates.

Serious concerns about habitat loss are shared by an expert panel dedicated to the recovery of Leadbeater's and made up of representatives of the state Environment Department, Parks Victoria, Zoos Victoria and the scientific community. By late last year the possum recovery team was so agitated by the emerging data on habitat loss that it proposed a moratorium on central highlands logging until better protections were put in place.

But after raising its concerns within the Environment Department the team was told bluntly it could not make such a recommendation and talk of a moratorium ended.

Instead the committee wrote to the department in March, proposing changes to the current state possum recovery plan, including listing logging and future loss of suitable habitat as threats to the species' survival.

The panel also recommends tightening the definition of Leadbeater's habitat and tougher prescriptions for logging operations in the region to slow habitat loss.

''The Leadbeater's Possum Recovery Team is concerned with the rapid and dramatic loss of habitat for Leadbeater's possum that has been exacerbated by the 2009 wildfires,'' the letter says.

Late last year, the Baillieu government sought to boost the flagging forestry industry by allowing VicForests to offer contracts over two decades, up from the previous five-years.

The government also committed to indemnifying VicForests if a contract is broken due to changes in policy, potentially leaving taxpayers with the bill should a future government want to reduce native timber logging.

Lindenmayer says there is not enough in the mountain ash forests to meet contract timber quotas. Logging coupes are in areas that returned to life after the 1939 fires. This, Professor Lindenmayer estimates, is a finite resource which only has another 10 to 15 years left.

''At current rates of cutting, the sawlog industry will be exhausted in 15 years' time. The industry itself is on an extinction trajectory.''

In a paper published in the journal Science on Friday, Lindenmayer writes that the mountain ash are forecast to decline from 5.1 trees per hectare in 1997 to 0.6 trees per hectare in 2070.

And, the Australian National University professor says, there are just 12 months left to implement the drastic changes that are needed to save the possum.

At a briefing for government agencies including Parks Victoria and the Department of Sustainability and Environment last week, Lindenmayer called for a Great Forest National Park to be established in Victoria's central highlands.

Lindenmayer said logging should be reduced by half and the carbon storage capacity of the forest be harnessed by bringing in brokers to establish a carbon offset program involving big business.

Lindenmayer says exit packages should be made available to loggers who have contracts with VicForests - with the proviso that the companies exit for good. He also argues VicForests needs a ''cultural overhaul'' so forest management focuses on the carbon storage potential of the mountain ash rather than treating the trees as a source of timber and pulp.

For its part, the timber industry says logging's footprint on forests is only small and it doesn't log in old-growth forest in the highlands. ''The primary threat to the Leadbeater's possum habitat is not forestry, but fire,'' says Lisa Marty, chief executive of the Victorian Association of Forest Industries.

VicForests spokesman David Walsh says it believes Leadbeater's can co-exist with timber harvesting.

Walsh says VicForests is committed to identifying and protecting potential habitat in areas where logging operations are planned and supports any review of the forest zoning system.

VicForests will factor in the impact of the bushfires on how much they log and from where.

He says medium-term outlooks shows a dip in the availability of highlands timber because of past bushfires. Sales commitments and harvest levels will be managed in line with this.

Victoria's Environment Minister, Ryan Smith, says in response to the debate the Victorian government has begun a $1.86 million project to survey endangered species.

Smith says it will help strike the best possible balance between timber production and the protection of biodiversity.

To date, the main response to the decline of Leadbeater's has centred around a captive breeding program at Healesville Sanctuary.

But the man who each year goes out into the swampy Yellingbo forest to weigh and measure Leadbeater's says the current approach is less than ideal.

Despite being the architect of the captive breeding program, Harley stresses it is not the answer in the crucial mountain forests.

While captive breeding is important, he says, the main game remains habitat conservation.

"Leadbeater's conservation will be won or lost in the mountain forests," he says.

"The foundation stone of everything is to ensure that you've got an adequate amount of high-quality habitat for a species. And if you don't have that, then nothing else you try is going to work."

Big trees, like the old-growth forests they inhabit, are declining globally

Rhett Butler
mongabay.com. January 26, 2012

Already on the decline, demise of giant trees may be hastened by global warming.

Already on the decline worldwide, big trees face a dire future due to habitat fragmentation, selective harvesting by loggers, exotic invaders, and the effects of climate change, warns an article published this week in New Scientist magazine.

Reviewing research from forests around the world, William F. Laurance, an ecologist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, provides evidence of decline among the world's "biggest and most magnificent" trees and details the range of threats they face. He says their demise will have substantial impacts on biodiversity and forest ecology, while worsening climate change.

"To persist, big trees need a safe place to live and long periods of stability," he told mongabay.com via email. "But time and stability are becoming very rare commodities in our modern world."
Giant trees offer critical habitat and forage for wildlife, while transpiring massive amounts of water through their leaves, contributing to local rainfall. Old trees also lock up massive amounts of carbon — in some forests they can account for up to a quarter of living biomass.

Dipterocarps are commonly targeted by loggers in Southeast Asia. This Dipterocarp was photographed in Borneo by Rhett A. Butler.

But their ability to sequester carbon and render other ecosystem services is threatened by human activities. Some of the world's largest trees are particularly targeted by loggers. The oldest trees are among the most valuable and therefore the first to be cut in "virgin" forest areas.
Big trees are also sensitive to fragmentation, which exposes them to stronger winds and drier conditions. Laurance's own work in the Amazon has shown substantial die-off of canopy giants in small forest fragments. Their susceptibility seems counter-intuitive given big trees' life histories, which invariably include periods of drought and other stress.

"All around the tropics, big canopy and emergent trees are succumbing to strong droughts," Laurance said. "That's been a surprise to me and many other ecologists, because big, ancient trees would have had to survive many droughts in the past."
Forest giants may suffer disproportionately from climate change, writes Laurance inNew Scientist, highlighting research in La Selva, Costa Rica by David and Deborah Clark.

"Trees are probably getting a double-whammy when the thermometer rises,' says David Clark. “During the day, their photosynthesis shuts down when it gets too warm, and at night they consume more energy because their metabolic rate increases, much as a reptile’s would do when it gets warmer.” With less energy being produced in warmer years and more being consumed just to survive, there is less energy available for growth.The Clarks’ hypothesis, if correct, means tropical forests could shrink over time. The largest, oldest trees would progressively die off and tend not to be replaced. Alarmingly, this might trigger a positive feedback that could destabilize the climate: as older trees die, forests would release some of their stored carbon into the atmosphere, prompting a vicious circle of further warming, forest shrinkage and carbon emissions.

Laurance notes climate change is having less direct impacts on forests, including creating conditions for exotic pathogens to thrive. For example, pathogens such as Dutch Elm Disease, introduced by trade or circumstance, can devastate native forests.

Giant Kapok tree in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

All told, the outlook for big trees is not good, according to Laurance."The decline of big trees foretells a different world where ancient behemoths are replaced by short-lived pioneers and generalists that can grow anywhere, where forests store less carbon and sustain fewer dependent animals, where giant cathedral-like crowns become a thing of the past."

Logging breaches discovered by conservationists in Yambulla State Forest

MEDIA RELEASE 
18/01/2012

Following the reports on unlawful logging in State forest on the south coast, the conservation group South East Forest Rescue today found more illegal logging in Yambulla State Forest.  This is the third time these type of breaches have been discovered in these particular compartments.

The conservationists are calling for a halt to native forest logging operations.

The compartment contains records of nationally listed endangered species such as Glossy Black Cockatoos, Smokey Mice, Southern Brown Bandicoots, Tiger Quolls, Eastern Pygmy Possums, Bent Wing Bats, Yellow-bellied Gliders, Gang Gang Cockatoos and White-Footed Dunnarts.

Environmentalists used a large wooden tripod attached to a structure in a tree 25 metres high with a person in it to halt logging operations south of Eden on the New South Wales far south coast.

There were four Rocky Outcrops in Yambulla State Forest Cpt 444 that have been logged.  This is unlawful under the licence conditions. (Eden Region TSL regulation 5.11).

“The response from Forests NSW shows the complete lack of regard for the licence conditions that Forests NSW and their contractors must abide by,” said Ms Stone of SEFR.  “The licence conditions for threatened species and habitat conservation are not being adhered to, even though the conditions are grossly inadequate.”

“We have reported the breaches in this compartment to the Office of Environment and Heritage,” said Ms Stone.  “We stated last time that the probability of further breaches in this compartment if harvesting continues is high given that this logging contractor is a repeat offender and that FNSW still is not complying with the licence conditions.”

"These breaches have caused major environmental damage. We have called on the Federal Minister for the Environment to take action.”

“We’re calling on the NSW Minister for the Environment to prosecute Forests NSW without further delay,” she said.  “Verbal and written warnings have been ineffective in rectifying this behaviour nor commensurate with the degree of environmental damage being inflicted upon threatened species habitat.”

"FNSW has had enough chances to get this simple direction right over 13 years and have failed miserably.  The time is over for 'education'. It is now time for the government to get serious and prosecute public
forest offenders of serious environmental damage as they are prosecuted on private land."

Contact Lisa Stone on 0428 640 271

Parker moves to amend NSW logging laws

NSW political reporter Mark Tobin
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Updated December 17, 2011 


New South Wales Environment Minister Robyn Parker is moving to amend laws which will allow Forests NSW to harm the endangered population of the yellow-bellied glider on the state's far south.

The documents show Ms Parker is planning changes to the Threatened Species Conservation Act which "authorises harm to the endangered population of the yellow-bellied glider of the Bago Plateau".

Opposition environment spokesman Luke Foley says it is disgraceful.

"Robyn Parker said logging protects koalas, she is now moving to allow logging of habitat of endangered yellow-bellied glider," Mr Foley said.

"The yellow-bellied glider is facing the very real risk of extinction and the NSW Environment Minister is doing everything she can to wipe out this endangered Australian marsupial."

In 2008 the NSW Scientific Committee warned the yellow-bellied glider is "facing a very high risk of extinction…in the near future".

Ms Parker has dismissed the concerns.

"An amendment has been made to reflect updated information about the habitat preferences of the yellow-bellied glider," she said in a statement.

“This amendment restricts Forests NSW logging to areas of low quality yellow-bellied glider habitat on the Bago Plateau.

"Logging in areas of medium and high quality habitat is prohibited until a scientifically rigorous population management plan has been signed off by the EPA.”

MEDIA RELEASE: Conservationists Halt Logging Across Victoria

GECO and Central Highlands Action Group,  5 December 2011

Conservationists are taking action across Victoria today to expose and hold accountable the Baillieu government and Vicforests for the ongoing destruction of threatened species habitats.

Conservationists in East Gippsland and in the Central highlands have halted logging operations this morning.

In Toolangi, Central highlands, the group has seized four logging machines which are attached to a tree sit, 50 metres up in the tree canopy. In East Gipplsand local community members are occupying a logging coupe in their water catchment, near Bonang, in known Long Footed Potoroo Habitat.

“Vicforests is responsible for logging in areas where endangered species have been recorded. The East Gippsland Long Footed Potoroo and the Central highlands Leadbeaters possum are in major decline. These areas are the last strong holds for those species and must be protected immediately,” said spokesperson for East Gippsland, David Caldwell.

“VicForests continue to force the Leadbeaters possum, towards the edge of extinction. This is one of Victorias most threatened species who’s very existence depends on these Mountain Ash forests of the Central Highlands.” Luke Pavia, spokes person for Central Highlands.

“The Ballieu Government has proposed to exempt such logging operations from adhering to the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act . This will weaken the already inadequate protection laws that are supposed to ensure survival of our most vulnerable species.” David Caldwell.

There is general disappointment within the wider community about unnecessary secrecy surrounding the protection of threatened species in Victorian State Forest. Vicforests refuse to make public, the results of their pre-logging, flora and fauna surveys, and have not been able to prove that adequate habitat exists in surrounding areas. They are obliged under the FFGA to do so. If these measures have not been complied with then logging operations being conducted are in breach of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act and are thus unlawful.

Conservationists in the coupes want to be assured that these measures have been complied with before any logging proceeds.

Rainforest logging breach: Protestors on site at Survey Road

Amelia Young
Media Release, Monday 21 November, 2011 

This morning conservationists have again halted logging in rainforest on Survey Road in far East Gippsland. Five logging machines have been cabled off to a treesit in the forest canopy. 

"As if it wasn't enough that VicForests had sent their logging contractors into a coupe containing precious old-growth forest; conservationists have now verified that rainforest has been logged on site as well", said spokesperson Amelia Young.

Logging of rainforest in Victoria is in breach of regulations governing logging operations, including the Code of Forest Practice and the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

"State government regulation requires that stands of rainforest be protected from some of the impacts of logging by a buffer of at least forty metres. On site in this logging coupe on Survey Road there are various locations where logging has occurred within what should be a forty metre buffer.

The conservationists  allegations have been presented to the relevant authority.

"We would like the Department of Sustainability and Environment to properly investigate these issues, immediately halt logging operations and ensure adequate rainforest buffers are implemented and adhered to."

Rainforests are an especially vulnerable ecological community and are listed as threatened under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. 

"Increased exposure to light and wind causes major drying out of this sensitive ecological community that, due to decades of logging and land clearing, is already reduced to covering less than one per cent of the state. This isn't the first time VicForestsf logging contractors have been caught logging rainforest in East Gippsland", said Ms Young. 

"In 2009 rainforest was positively identified in a coupe adjacent to this one, along the same gully system. In that instance, the Department confirmed the facts, concluding that logging activities had caused major environmental impact. These repeated rainforest logging breaches make mockery of claims that logging in Victoria is lawful and is among world's best practice", concluded Ms Young.

For further comment: Amelia Young 0404 074 577

References

• DSE Flora and Fauna Gaurantee Act Action Statement No. 238 (PDF)

Scars will tell the story

Sue Roberts, Lower Plenty
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011


THE scars will tell the story - of betrayal and loss, of creatures crunched by bulldozers and numbers in their last stand for survival.

Ted Baillieu's hit list

Lynn Frankes, Kew
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011


WHAT else that I hold dear is on Ted Baillieu's hit list? Wind farms, carbon targets and now diminished protection for endangered species and old-growth forests via a sneaky back door.

Back to their roots

Samuel Moore, Hawthorn
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

THE Baillieu government is stuck in the old-school mode of thinking that says environmental preservation and economic growth are incompatible. Logging native forests has continually lost the state money, so all this proposal is doing is attempting to make VicForests a little less unprofitable than it already is. Relying entirely on plantations, as Gunns is now doing in Tasmania, is the economically rational thing to do and the environmentally obvious approach. If the Liberal government truly lived up to its economic ideology, and didn't let the Nationals run the show, it would stop subsidising an increasingly unprofitable, government-driven native forest industry, and let the competitive advantages of plantations be realised by private industry.

Morally challenged

Andrew Parsons, Ringwood East
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011



WHEN I was a kid facing defeat in a contest on home territory, it was considered unacceptable and morally wrong to simply change the rules to get your own way. Now we see the Baillieu government doing exactly that in response to the landmark ruling in 2010 when the Supreme Court banned VicForests from logging old-growth forests at Brown Mountain in East Gippsland. Environmental laws are designed to protect threatened species and it is not often nature scores a win. But now, by attempting to water down the law and prop up the destructive logging industry, the government is guilty of the unacceptable and immoral behaviour of changing the rules when the outcome is unpalatable. Shame.

A lawless act

Michael Bond, Richmond
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011



IT IS outrageous that the Baillieu government plans to protect the logging industry at the expense of endangered species. Old-growth forests are some of our best carbon sinks, and for the sake of a minority of dwindling logging jobs they will be lost forever, with the wildlife they contain. Massive subsidies keep this industry alive - money that could be better spent. This assault on native forests is environmental terrorism at its finest and appears to be a case of "if you can't beat the law, change it". An outrageous use of Parliament.

A loss now and for eternity

Dave Archer, Frankston
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

IT IS with much sadness, and not a little anger, that I read of Ted Baillieu's proposal to sacrifice our endangered wildlife and magnificent old-growth forest for some woodchips that we can produce in plantations (''New law in pipeline to aid loggers'', The Age, 3/11). Does Mr Baillieu not care about his grandchildren? None of us will ever see a Tassie tiger again but the long-footed potoroo and other threatened species are still hanging on, just, for future generations to view in the wild and not stuffed in some glass display case, which is where the Premier is proposing to drive them. We need to give these endangered animals and irreplaceable forests a voice. Yes, we need wood products, but we don't need to source them from areas where endangered species live.

Let's not be the generation that oversaw the demise of so much more of our native wildlife, to temporarily sustain an industry in its death throes. These creatures need more protection. Please take a deep breath, Mr Baillieu, think again and do the right thing.

Unethical at best

Sarah Rees, MyEnvironment, Healesville
The Age (letter), November 4, 2011

THE Department of Sudden Extinctions (DSE) has been handed the pen of god to cull threatened species to continue woodchipping native forests. Why? After Black Saturday, the forests were stripped of their capacity to operate duly as a woodchip source and maintain catchment health, but don't let that get in the way of growth. Empowering the DSE to selectively cull threatened species is unethical at best. As for our state's faunal emblem, let's hope Melbourne Zoo can reserve a room for the last Leadbeater's possum - they don't take up much space.

New state law in the pipeline to aid loggers

Tom Arup
The Age, November 3, 2011

LOGGERS can seek exemptions from state environment laws protecting endangered species under proposed changes quietly released by the state government.

The proposed amendments to the code for timber production - outlined in a document posted on a government website - hands power to the Secretary of the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

The secretary would be able to exempt a logging project from the requirements of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, which protects the state's endangered and threatened species.

The government has so far released nothing on the proposed changes, but a spokeswoman said last night that there would be sufficient time for public comments on the proposed changes, due February.

The proposed changes follow a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court last year banning VicForests from logging old-growth forest at Brown Mountain in East Gippsland, after an endangered long-footed potoroo was filmed in an area to be felled.

The change will mean proponents of a new logging coupe can make applications to the secretary for exemption.

The secretary will consider, among other things, the numbers required to maintain a viable population of a listed species in the area to be logged, and the amount of habitat near the proposed coupe already protected in national parks.

"Variations to the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2007 are proposed to improve the certainty of timber supply to Victoria's native forest timber industry," the document, dated October 26, states.

"The objective of the variations is to achieve a better balance between the protection of threatened species and sustainable timber production from public native forests."

Wilderness Society campaigner Luke Chamberlain said this was "a sneaky move" by the government to exempt logging from endangered species legislation, and would "betray Victoria's unique wildlife to the chainsaws".

"It puts us on a par with governance of logging practices in Indonesia," he said. "This is world's worst practice of lawless logging."

The Age first revealed in August potential changes to the way endangered species are looked after in Victoria.

At the time, the spokeswoman for Environment Minister Ryan Smith said the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act was currently not under review.

The government reserved the right to review legislation to ensure that it was current, and fit for the purpose, she said.

Yesterday, the spokeswoman said the changes were to the timber code, which fit under the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act, which was not a legislative instrument.

That was contradicted at the time by parliamentary secretary for forestry, Gary Blackwood, who said the government intended to "revisit or review" the way the law applied to the management of threatened species.

Timber code chance could result in more native forest logging in Victoria

Kath Sullivan 
ABC rural news, Thursday, 03/11/2011

The Victorian Government is proposing changes to Timber Production Code of Practice that could result in increased logging in native forests.

The changes give the final say on logging in protected areas to the secretary of the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Under the changes, the secretary could over-ride the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act protections and allow logging in previously protected areas.

Parliamentary secretary for Forestry, Gary Blackwood, says the changes would also lead to comprehensive studies of endangered species in native forests.

"It's about allowing us to use that 10 per cent of public native forest estate that we have available for timber production," he said.

"It's about allowing us to use that in a more common sense and practical manner and it's about perhaps providing the opportunity to take a bit of pressure off that production forest because of the threat of a threatened species being found in that area."

Green groups are opposing the changes, saying they'll be detrimental to the protection of endangered species.