Australian Rural & Regional News asked some questions of Kinglake Friends of the Forest, answered below the statement.
Kinglake Friends of the Forest, 15 August 2022
VicForests has been given a green light to log areas of Greater Glider habitat in Victoria’s Central Highlands, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday [10 August 2022].
Three parcels of forest known to be home to the endangered glider will be opened for logging despite VicForests confirming that they have not surveyed the areas.
In December, all areas known to contain Greater Gliders were placed under temporary protective injunction while the case was fought out in the Supreme Court.
VicForests recently applied for permission to log four of these areas. Justice Richards, presiding over the case, ruled that three could be logged.
Gliders already detected and recorded by citizen scientists will be protected by a buffer extending 240 metres out from the sighting.
The Greater Glider has recently been declared “endangered”. Native forest logging is a major cause of their rapid decline.
Environmental groups, Kinglake Friends of the Forest, Environment East Gippsland and Gippsland Environment Group, brought the case against VicForests, a Victorian Government agency, last year alleging inadequate surveying prior to logging Glider habitat and inadequate protection of identified Greater Gliders.
Expert advice to improve detection of the endangered gliders has been rejected out of hand by VicForests, with CEO Monique Dawson stating more thorough surveying is a “serious risk to health and safety”.
The court has heard OH&S experts from both sides agree the recommended surveying can be done safely.
The environmental groups bringing the case further allege VicForests has failed to protect the very trees in which Greater Gliders have been seen and recorded.
Associate Professor for Biodiversity and Climate at Curtin University, Grant Wardell-Johnson, recommended both a thorough surveying protocol and the 240 metre buffer protection for the gliders.
Yesterday, VicForests argued in court to log four areas where Greater Gliders have been detected, citing a shortage of available forest to log and obligations to their customers and contractors.
“It is unjust to permit VicForests to kill unidentified Gliders,” argued barrister for the environmental groups, Jonathan Korman, “merely because VicForests refuses to find out where they are and protect them before commencing logging operations.”
“VicForests has still not taken steps to shift the focus of its logging operations to areas of state forest where Greater Gliders are unlikely to be found,” he added.
VicForests’ request has been accepted by the court which removed the injunction in three of the four coupes requested.
A 240 metre radius protection buffer remains – for Greater Gliders lucky enough to have been detected and recorded prior to the arrival of the machines, but no further surveying has been deemed necessary.
“So the survival of any other Greater Gliders and their habitat in these “coupes” will depend on volunteer surveyors having the time to find them,” said Rosemary Storey of Kinglake Friends of the Forest.
“And these same people now face huge fines and even jail for trying to locate and record Greater Gliders before their homes get smashed down,” she added.
“We fear for the survival the Greater Glider.”
Questions from Australian Rural & Regional News
ARR.News: At the hearing on 10 August, there were a number of mentions of there being “lots of gliders” and that it was suspected that there are “high numbers of undetected gliders” in the coupes. If so doesn’t this mean the gliders are not “threatened” or “endangered”?
Kinglake Friends of the Forest: A high concentration of Greater Gliders in a particular forest stand indicates that this is prime habitat for them. Unfortunately, good Glider habitat also happens to be exactly the sort of forest sought by VicForests because of the size and maturity of the trees.
There is no arguing with the fact that the Greater Glider, considered common until just 20 odd years ago, was listed as “vulnerable to extinction” six years ago and has already had that classification upgraded to “endangered” (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-06/greater-glider-listed-as-endangered-climate-change-logging/101212272) under the EPBC Act.
There is also no arguing with the fact that logging is a major driver of its population decline.
ARR.News: At the hearing, the judge mentioned at one point that there was only 8 hectares left to harvest, based on sightings of gliders. Can you put that figure into context? Was that the amount before the injunctions were lifted? How much forest is not available for harvesting out of what amount of total forest? Over what area are the gliders known to live?
Kinglake Friends of the Forest: That 8 hectares referred to just one of the four coupes under discussion. With Greater Glider protections in place, it would become an 8 hectare coupe.
Across Victoria, however, there are 72,000 hectares of forest estate which is likely to be Glider-free, available to VicForests for harvesting, but it’s not in the TRP – Timber Release Plan. In other words, VicForests has not gone to the trouble of identifying coupes in this glider-free area and adding them to the Timber Release Plan.
Regarding distribution, strictly speaking, we’re talking about Southern Greater Gliders (Petauroides volans) here and they live in the cool moist forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria, Gippsland and of NSW.
ARR.News: Is it possible to relocate gliders living in a targeted area before it is harvested?
Kinglake Friends of the Forest: Greater Gliders have very precise habitat requirements which include enough mature trees within gliding distance to provide several dens per animal and enough feed trees. Like koalas, Greater Gliders, are only able to eat the leaves of a very few species of eucalypt and they eat nothing else. They are very heat-sensitive and can only survive in cool, moist forest. I’m not aware of any successful re-locations or indeed where they could be re-located to.
ARR.News: At the hearing also there was mention of a need to retain at least 60% of the trees/ forest in the harvest zone to support the gliders (please confirm accuracy). What amount of harvesting do you believe would allow for sustainable levels of gliders?
Kinglake Friends of the Forest: Both experts (KFF and VicForests) agreed that if there was 60% retention of basal area of trees within the logged area, or ‘harvest zone’ of the coupe, then gliders might survive if a 2.6 Ha logging exclusion zone was placed over their home range with some additional requirements recommended by the VicForests expert.
ARR.News: Have KFF and VicForests made efforts to find a way for there to be both limited, careful harvesting while retaining sufficient habitat for a sustainable number of gliders? If not, will you?
Kinglake Friends of the Forest: The VicForests and KFF experts agreed on how logging could be carried out while allowing for Greater Glider survival. The agreement was around thorough surveying and modified logging.
VicForests have not committed to the thorough surveying or modified logging as agreed by the experts.
Australian Rural & Regional News has invited VicForests to respond to this article and will publish its response once received.
Related story: A Greater Future with Gliders: Kinglake Friends of the Forest responds
