A colony of protected Greater Gliders has been found in VicForests logging coupe 892-507-0020 in the Queensborough river forest. Surveys conducted by GECO and Fauna and Flora Research Collective have documented a 'high density' of Greater Gliders triggering legal protection of the forest.
In East Gippsland, when more than 10 Greater Gliders are found over a distance of 1km the law requires 100 hectare Special Protection Zone to be created.
Logging must stop now and a protection zone must be implemented.
GECO and FFRC submitted a report in the early hours of this morning detailing the protected population of Greater Gliders.
READ THE REPORT HERE
Logging has already impacted on approximately one third of the forest within this coupe. About 30 hectares of the coupe has been marked out for logging.
Trees that Greater Gliders have been documented in will be logged this week unless the state government act.
VicForests has failed to conduct a spotlighting survey to determine if protected Greater Gliders are present in the coupe and have commenced logging.
TAKE ACTION - Contact the Ministers responsible for VicForests.
Let them know you are very concerned that VicForests continue to log protected wildlife habitat in breach of environmental protections.
Call on them to direct VicForests to stop logging in he Queensborough river forest in East Gippsland where protected Greater Gliders are being logged.
Jaala Pulford MP, Minister for Agriculture and VicForests
Phone: (03) 8392 6000 Email: [email protected]
Call Tim Pallas MP, Treasurer and sole shareholder of VicForests
Phone: (03) 9651 5201 Email: [email protected]
Before logging started, eight Greater Glider records were present on the government's natural values register (Victorian Biodiversity Atlas or VBA). These records are all within 1km of the logging coupe, a clear indication the forest is good habitat and likely to support Greater Glider populations.
Despite the known presence of this species in the forest directly adjacent to the logging coupe, VicForests did not bother to survey the coupe for Greater Gliders and are now illegally logging the habitat of this protected species.
VicForests commissioned ecologists to survey the coupe prior to logging but appear to have instructed their contractors not to conduct a spotlighting survey. The survey report states that a spotlighting survey was 'not required'!
VicForests so called 'multi layered planning process' was clearly missing a few layers in this instance. They completely ignored the existing records of threatened Greater Gliders in this forest and started logging without bothering to look for a species that requires protection under law.
The state government has allowed VicForests to start logging this forest when they've clearly not met their legal obligations to ensure protected species are searched for and protected before the logging starts.
TAKE ACTION - Contact the Ministers responsible for VicForests.
Jaala Pulford MP, Minister for Agriculture and VicForests
Phone: (03) 8392 6000 Email: [email protected]
Call Tim Pallas MP, Treasurer and sole shareholder of VicForests
Phone: (03) 9651 5201 Email: [email protected]