Greater Gliders on the Road to Extinction

Tell the Minister to act, and to protect Greater Gliders from extinction.

Dear Minister
I wish to raise my extreme concern about the actions of the Environment Protection Authority in once again changing Site Specific Biodiversity Conditions for native forest logging that are supposed to protect the habitat of threatened species, particularly the endangered Greater Glider.
As the Minister for the Environment, you have the power to provide general directions to the EPA under the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991 provided they are of a general nature and that they are in the public interest.
The extinction of any species is a matter of public interest and the EPA have now made a change to native forest logging conditions that will likely cause more Greater Glider den trees to be removed than would have occurred under the previous conditions.
As you are aware, the changes made to the Site Specific Biodiversity Conditions in February required that surveys for den trees be conducted at a time most likely to lead to accurate records. You would also be aware that the Forestry Corporation has not been complying with this February condition to conduct surveys within an hour of sunset.
It is truly disappointing that the EPA has ignored community reports and their obligation to hold the Forestry Corporation responsible for non-compliance with the conditions of native forest logging. But, it is completely outrageous that the EPA would revise this condition rather than enforce it.
The new conditions represent a surrender to the interests of people that profit from native forest logging and by extension the driving of Greater Gliders towards extinction. It is in complete breach of the trust of me and other members of the community that you have not used your powers to stop this from occurring. 
As you are aware, Greater Gliders have very specific habitat requirements, namely larger hollows in older trees. Industrial logging in Greater Glider forest areas without genuine and scientifically based conditions to protect Gliders and their den and habitat trees is extinction logging. 
I encourage you to direct the EPA to prioritise the prevention of extinction, rather than allowing them to prioritise wood supply, something that they do not have a responsibility to do.
A lawful direction by you, to the EPA, could have a meaningful impact on reducing the chances of extinction of forest dependent species. If you are unwilling to use the powers vested in you to protect the environment, then I cannot understand how you expect to meet your election commitments to reverse the destruction of the environment that was witnessed under the Coalition Government.
Communities across NSW are watching, and waiting, to see the trend towards extinctions in NSW stop and turn around. We have elected a Government different from the last one, and are desperate for the changes that you promised us.
Sincerely

Greater Gliders on the Road to Extinction

Native forest logging in NSW is pushing threatened species towards extinction, and the Greater Glider has been abandoned by both the NSW Government and the Environment Protection Authority.

Greater Glider populations plummeted by 60% in the 2019-2020 bushfires, causing the species to be uplisted on the threatened species list to being endangered with extinction in 2022. Unless we act now, they will be gone forever.

Work by the community throughout 2023 showed that the Forestry Corporation was failing to adequately undertake pre-logging Broad Area Habitat Surveys. The loggers were skirting their responsibilities by surveying for Gliders–a nocturnal animal–during the day.

The community recorded more than 12 hundred breaches before a dead Greater Glider was discovered near a logging area in Tallaganda State Forest in August 2023. It took a dead Greater Glider before the Environment Protection Authority decided to do anything to protect this threatened species from logging.

In February 2024, the EPA and the Forestry Corporation announced new rules that were supposed to protect Greater Glider Habitat by requiring that surveys for den trees were undertaken when they were most likely to be found. This was considered a bare minimum response but was welcomed as a marginal improvement.

Just 3 month since the new changes were made, the EPA, the Government and the Forestry Corporation have revealed that they never intended for the new rules to actually operate as advertised.

After receiving hundreds of fresh reports from the community, that the Forestry Corporation were not obeying the February rules, the EPA announced that the rules would be changed again, not to protect Greater Gliders, but to suit the Forestry Corporation and to protect the ‘wood supply’.

After decades of intensive industrial scale logging, the Greater Glider is now on the precipice of extinction. With the EPA turning its back on them, the Minister for Environment is one of the only people with the power to take the necessary action to halt this disastrous outcome.

Greater Gliders on the Road to Extinction

Tell the Minister to act, and to protect Greater Gliders from extinction.

Greater Gliders on the Road to Extinction

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