This article relates to the ongoing debate on Australian Rural & Regional News: Open for Debate: Koalas
Australian Rural & Regional News asked the following question of Sue Higginson and Senator Hanson-Young in response to the announcement, Greens to introduce Bill to prohibit forestry operations in koala habitat – saying it’s time:
Are you aware that, according to Dr Brad Law, NSW DPI Principal Scientist, DPI Forest Science research shows that: “Annual monitoring of koala occurrence in [north east] hinterland forests since 2015 has found a stable trend over time at a regional level” and “(t)rend data are generally not available from other regions” and that “regulated timber harvesting had no significant impact on koala density”, and this means that regulated timber harvesting is not a threat to koalas, so the premise of the Forestry Amendment (Koala Habitats) Bill 2022 is flawed?
This is Sue Higginson’s response to that question and in light of Dr Law’s further response, More on koala monitoring: Brad Law.
The Hon. Sue Higginson, NSW Greens MP, 25 November 2022
All levels of Government agree that our Koalas have declined significantly in recent decades and that they are facing extinction in coming decades if threats to their survival are not stopped. Both the NSW1 and Commonwealth Governments2 listed Koalas as Endangered with extinction this year in the aftermath of the catastrophic fires of the Black Spring and Summer. Koalas in NSW will be extinct in the wild by 2050 unless we stop destroying their habitat.
The only voices suggesting that all is well for our Koalas, or that destroying their habitat is ok, are coming from the extractive logging industry and supporters.3
The legitimacy of the Law article is broadly contested. All credible independent research, all independent peer-reviewed and published evidence and all on-ground evidence shows very clearly that our Koalas are tragically in a state of precipitous decline within the public forest estate, that local extinctions are mounting and that all is not well with our beloved Koalas.
The paper referred to by Law resulted from industry-sponsored scientists with sound recorders out in the forest and concluded Koala populations are in a better position than they were previously. It lacks the adequate rigour of a study upon which to hinge forest management policy of the entire State.
Dr Stephen Phillips, who is widely considered the authoritative voice on Koala conservation in Australia, proposes a much more robust counter argument. Dr Phillips’ research4 has shown that in areas where Koala populations live, 100 per cent of the preferred koala feed trees above 30cm in that area are used by koalas. Forest logging practices currently require 10 preferred koala feed trees to be retained per hectare, a strategy that Dr Phillips asserts is not founded in research. Phillips also says that over the years of Koala population decline, all Koala populations have declined in our publicly owned State Forests, no matter the size of the population. What was once attributed to Koalas “eating themselves out of house and home” has now been recognised as a result of habitat loss due to forestry operations. Phillips also discusses habitat loss not just as removal but as modification, small changes to habitat that can be catastrophic to the Koala.
In places such as Clouds Creek State Forest on the Western Dorrigo Plateau, field research commissioned by the NSW EPA found that the sequential industrial logging of tall wet Eucalypt forests since the late 1990s has resulted in the collapse of what were formerly large intact breeding colonies of Koalas. Koalas are sadly now effectively functionally extinct across these industrially logged landscapes with no signs of population recovery evident.
All credible evidence shows irrefutably that the industrial logging of our native forests, particularly in the significant Koala strongholds of Northern NSW, is accelerating the decline and pushing our Koalas rapidly towards extinction. This is the case in the tall Eucalypt forests in a 100km arc around Coffs Harbour, all part of the proposed Great Koala National Park. In recent years, under the forest logging rules, operations undertaken there amount to almost clear-felling and massive habitat loss of these forests and result in the destruction of entire forests from canopy to ground level. This is rapidly drying out formerly moist forest refuges that our Koalas need to survive the rapidly escalating temperature increases of the climate crisis and making future bushfires much more dangerous. It is a feedback loop that is collapsing forest ecosystems just when we need them to remain viable and intact so as to hold carbon and water.
In places such as Ellis State Forest, also on the Western Dorrigo Plateau, which were badly impacted by the Black Spring megafires, specifically the Bees Nest and Liberation Trail megafires from September to December 2019, the last old growth moist forest refuge where Koalas have survived has been subjected in recent months to industrial logging operations. These logging operations have targeted the best remaining Koala habitat. There was significant evidence of the presence of Koalas in these old growth forests, but under the current rules, the Forestry Corporation is not required to look for Koalas prior to logging anymore. Significant Koala colonies such as in Bagawa, Lower Bucca, Wedding Bells and Wild Cattle Creek State Forests between Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo, Grafton and Woolgoolga are all part of nationally significant Koala hubs identified by the NSW conservation agency but they have been destroyed by industrial logging operations since the Black Summer fires.
To suggest logging is not a threat to Koalas, given habitat loss is identified as one of the most significant threats to the survival of the Koala that is facing extinction by 2050 in NSW is outlandish.5
Responses: This article has been responded to by David McPherson, Deputy Director General, Forestry & Land Reform, NSW Department of Primary Industries and by Vic Jurskis.
Related articles: Greens to introduce Bill to prohibit forestry operations in koala habitat – saying it’s time: Higginson; Koala update: Brad Law; More on koala monitoring: Brad Law.
References
1 NSW Scientific Committee determination: “Human activities including deforestation and land clearance for grazing, agriculture, urbanisation, timber harvesting, mining and other activities have resulted in loss, fragmentation and degradation of koala habitats”
https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/threatened-species/nsw-threatened-species-scientific-committee/determinations/final-determinations/2022/phascolarctos-cinereus-endangered-species-listing
2 Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – Koala Conservation Advice
“Clearing and degradation of koala habitat
• Status: historical, current and future
• Confidence: known
• Consequence: severe
• Trend: increasing
• Extent: across the entire range
Human activities (e.g., deforestation and land clearance for grazing, agriculture, urbanisation, timber harvesting, mining and other activities) have resulted in habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation.”
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/species/pubs/85104-conservation-advice-12022022.pdf
3 Vic Jurskis, former NSW Forestry agency staff member, Spectator, October 2022, “NSW koala numbers have been increasing for decades”
How to fix the ‘extinction crisis’ | The Spectator Australia
4 Steve Phillips, Biolink Webpage, List of Publications and work https://www.biolink.com.au/publications
5 NSW Koala Strategy https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/OEH/Corporate-Site/Documents/Animals-and-plants/Threatened-species/koala-strategy-2022-220075.pdf
Which is based on the following referenced works:
– Biolink 2016, Analysing the historical record: aspects of the distribution and abundance of koalas in the Campbelltown City Council Local Government Area 1900 – 2012. Final Report to Campbelltown City Council. Biolink Ecological Consultants, Uki NSW.
– Biolink 2020, Kings Hill Interchange and Drainage Channel: Koala Management Issues. Final Report to Transport NSW and Arcadis. Biolink Ecological Consultants, Uki NSW.
– DPIE n.d., Koala Habitat Information Base, accessed January 2022: datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/dataset/koala-habitat-information-base.
– DPIE 2018, NSW Koala Prioritisation Project – Areas of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS), NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, accessed January 2022: datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/ dataset/areas-of-regional-koala-significance-arks.
– DPIE 2019, Conserving Koalas in the Wollondilly and Campbelltown Local Government Areas. Environment, Energy and Science, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, accessed January 2022: www.environment.nsw.gov.au/research-andpublications/publications-search/conserving-koalas-wollondillycampbelltown-local-government-areas.
– DPIE 2020, Framework for the spatial prioritisation of koala conservation actions in NSW – Iconic Koala Project, Environment, Energy and Science, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, reprinted 2020 with changes to Table 1, accessed January 2022: www.environment.nsw.gov.au/research-andpublications/publications-search/framework-for-the-spatialprioritisation-of-koala-conservation-actions-in-nsw.
– DPIE 2021, NSW Wildlife and Conservation Bushfire Recovery: Medium-term response plan (p.41), NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, accessed January 2022: www.environment. nsw.gov.au/research-and-publications/publications-search/wildlifeand-conservation-bushfire-recovery-medium-term-response-plan.
– NSW Parliament 2020, Koala populations and habitat in New South Wales, Legislative Council Portfolio Committee No. 7 – Planning and Environment, accessed January 2022.
– OCSE 2016, Report of the Independent Review into the Decline of Koala Populations in Key Areas of NSW (p.30), NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer, accessed March 2021: www.chiefscientist.nsw.gov.au/ independent-reports/koala-report.
– Phillips & Forsman 2005, An ecological overview of koalas and their habitat on the Innes Peninsula, Port Macquarie NSW. Unpublished report. Biolink Ecological Consultants.
– Ward, M, Rhodes, JR, Watson, JE, Lefevre, J, Atkinson, S & Possingham, HP, 2020. Use of surrogate species to cost-effectively prioritize conservation actions. Conservation Biology, 34(3), pp.600-610.
