NSW’s environmental watchdog has put the endangered greater glider on a fast track to extinction by watering down logging protections, experts say.
Ecologists from WWF-Australia and Wilderness Australia have condemned the watchdog, accusing it of making reckless changes so Forestry Corporation can more easily log state forests.
The government-owned corporation remains under investigation by the Environment Protection Authority over suspicions it illegally destroyed den trees greater gliders rely on for survival.
The EPA recently imposed a series of stop-work orders in two forests and questioned the competency of the corporation’s pre-harvest habitat surveys.
Officers found a dead glider close to harvesting operations at one site.
Forestry Corporation later admitted it searches for den trees during the day, when the nocturnal animals are asleep in their hollows.
On Friday, the EPA told stakeholders it was ditching specific search requirements for glider den trees, which must currently be retained with a 50-metre logging exclusion zone around each one.
Instead, Forestry Corporation will have to keep more large, hollow-bearing trees a hectare – 14 instead of the current eight in high-density glider areas, and 12 instead of the current eight in low-density areas.
Experts are furious and say the change will fast-track the glider’s slide towards extinction, given each animal uses between six and 20 den trees, and also needs food trees nearby.
Dr Kita Ashman is a threatened species ecologist with WWF-Australia and was briefed on the changes by the EPA chief, Tony Chappel.
“He said ‘we acknowledge that it is a marginal improvement, but it is still an improvement’ to which I responded let me be clear, this is a step backwards,” she said.
“I told him that as an expert on this species, the EPA would be locking in this animal’s extinction.”
Andrew Wong, a greater glider ecologist with Wilderness Australia, said Forestry Corporation would be able to log right up to the base of retained trees.
He said the new rules would not leave behind useful habitat for gliders.
“The best scientists on this issue don’t know the current status of greater gliders but are desperately afraid for them,” he said.
“Everyone you talk to is basically saying they are going extinct.”
Dr Ashman accused the EPA of permanently outsourcing the identification of den trees to concerned ecologists and citizen scientists, whose work helped spark the recent investigations into Forestry Corporation.
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Gary Dunnett, executive director of the National Parks Association, said every den tree made a difference to the survival of the species.
“By removing the requirement for pre-logging surveys the NSW Government has abandoned responsible environmental management and gifted Forestry Corporation a ‘set and forget’ arrangement that will do nothing to safeguard gliders,” he said.
Dailan Pugh, from the North East Forest Alliance, said Forestry Corporation had failed to identify greater glider den trees while conservation groups had identified dozens in recent months, proving that they can be found.
In a statement, Chappel said gliders would be better protected under the changes, and exclusion zones would still apply around “known recorded locations of greater glider dens”.
“Instead of depending on unreliable point-in-time surveys to find the habitat of the gliders, we will assume the species is present and conserve their habitat,” he said.
“We have reviewed extensive research, sought expert views and believe this change strikes the right balance, resulting in significant ecological and regulatory improvement to the current arrangements.”
Forestry Corporation said it worked with the EPA on the changes and that they struck the right balance between conservation and renewable timber production.
“Forestry Corporation is confident the changes will still enable us to supply the current contracted timber volumes,” it said in a statement.
“We are also establishing a landscape monitoring program for Southern Greater Gliders across the state using thermal drones and spotlight surveys.”
Comment was sought from the NSW environment minister.
The federal minister Tanya Plibersek moved the greater glider from vulnerable to endangered status after the black summer bushfires wiped out more than a third of its habitat.
She declined to comment.