Former NSW Labor minister condemns Forestry Corporation after greater glider ‘den trees’ found at planned logging site | New South Wales politics

A former New South Wales Labor environment minister has called on the government to halt logging in a forest on the state’s south coast after citizen scientists recorded 102 trees they say are home to endangered greater gliders.

Bob Debus, who served as environment minister in the Carr and Iemma governments, accused the NSW Forestry Corporation (NSWFC) of being found to have breached its own regulations so frequently that the practice was essentially part of its business model.

A series of convictions recorded by the state-owned agency last year led a former judge to compare the forestry company to a “criminal organisation”; The NSWFC said at the time that the accusation was “ridiculous”.

Wilderness Australia said it had identified 102 so-called “den trees” during surveys in the Glenbog state forest over the past two months. scheduled to log in within the next few weeks.

According to state rules, logging is not allowed within 50 feet of known stands. The Forestry Agency’s own surveys identified only four trees in the area.

If the citizen scientists’ results are correct, this raises questions about whether recordings can continue.

Wilderness Australia’s operations manager Andrew Wong, who leads the volunteer team, warned Forestry Corp could commit “ecological fraud” if they continue to run their forestry activities. He accused them of doing minimal research and claiming there were fewer gliders out there than there actually were.

Debus said the operations at Glenbog showed that native forest logging was untenable in NSW.

“Forestry Corp violates its own regulations so frequently that this practice has effectively become part of its business model,” he said.

“Native forestry operations are operated at a permanent loss, so in effect taxpayers pay the penalties when they are sued.”

_{Sign up: AÜ Breaking News email}

Glenbog, near Deua national park, is a hotspot for greater gliders and other threatened species because it is a cloud forest with its own microclimate, making it less susceptible to extreme temperatures.

Andrew Wong, Wilderness Australia’s operations manager, said the volunteer group spotted large cavities in old trees during the day and then waited until dusk to spot the gliders emerging from their dens.

“There’s only a small window when they show up as it gets dark,” Wong said.

Volunteers recorded each large glider sighting using thermal cameras and spotlights and uploaded them to a phone app, then geolocated them on a map. The data was also sent to the government website BioNet, he said.

Until recently, the Forestry Institute was conducting research during the day. After the court ruled that this was insufficient, they began investigating at dusk and at night.

Wong claimed that the company was still doing most of its research outside the critical window when the gliders appeared, and that its research methods failed to take into account hollows on the other side of the trees or deep in the forest.

“Glenbog is a bastion of biodiversity that should never have been recorded,” Wong said.

Tara Moriarty, the agriculture minister responsible for forestry, said she expected the company to “undertake native forest activities in line with the requirements of the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals.”

“This provides very specific instructions for searching for greater glider nests and I am informed that the Forestry Agency has extensive procedures to comply with these requirements.”

A Forestry Agency spokesman said the approval conditions included specific parameters for night searches for larger gliders.

“ [conditions specify] time of day, location of surveys relative to roads and trails, and the speed at which surveys must be carried out. Forestry Enterprises conduct night research in line with these requirements.

“Information provided to the Forestry Agency by third parties is also taken into account in the planning process and in exclusion zones created around forest observations,” he said.

“Records provided by citizen scientists are currently being incorporated into the plan.”

However, the rules are minimum requirements for inspections and it is open to Forestry to do more.

The area is also home to many wombatas, including those rescued and rehabilitated at the neighboring wildlife sanctuary.

The sanctuary made an informal agreement with the NSWFC not to damage wombat nests during logging. An incident that happened in 2014 When nests are destroyed during forestry operations, the entrances are crushed by machinery and blocked by felled timber.

The sanctuary’s founder, Marie Wynan, said many of the wombats were wombats she had released. “They don’t deserve to be buried alive.”

He said that 666 nests were identified.

NSWFC said it was working with the wildlife sanctuary to prevent damage to the nests.