Calls for logging to be suspended in threatened Greater Glider habitats as Forestry Corporation accused of illegally logging glider homes

A community audit has found NSW state owned Forestry Corporation has logged multiple protected areas around Greater Glider den trees in the Styx River State Forest on the NSW North Coast in breach of state logging laws.

Media reports today have documented the findings and a growing record of rules breaches, fines and prosecutions incurred by Forestry Corporation.

The Styx River findings follow multiple complaints against Forestry Corporation over failures to comply with Greater Glider survey requirements in other State Forests areas across the North and South of NSW in recent months prompting forest protection groups to call for an immediate moratorium on logging in areas of high density Greater Glider habitat.

Logging rules to protect the endangered Greater Glider require logging exclusions for 50 metres around Greater Glider den trees. Eleven den trees were identified by community surveys in the Styx River State Forest in December 2023 and January 2024 and were reported to the State’s logging regulator, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) before logging commenced. The EPA passed these records onto Forestry Corporation at the time.

A post logging audit conducted earlier this month by a community citizen science program identified Forestry Corporation had logged in 9 areas that should have been protected by den tree exclusions including the likely removal of two Glider den trees.

The alleged illegal logging has been reported to the EPA and is now being investigated. Scott Daines from South East Forest Rescue who conducted the survey said, “the loss of this critical Greater Glider habitat is devastating. Forestry Corporation has consistently failed to identify Greater Glider dens and then when we find and report these Glider homes, Forestry Corporation goes and destroys them. The logging of these protected areas is inexcusable and the EPA needs to step up and prosecute Forestry Corporation but it is clear that trying to mitigate impacts with logging rules isn’t working. We need logging out of these areas.”

Dailan Pugh from the North East Forest Alliance said, “The Forestry Corporation can not be trusted to follow the rules. We’re seeing an intensification of logging in the area of the proposed Great Koala National Park and ongoing breaches of Greater Glider protection rules. Forestry Corporation is making a mockery of the Minns’ Government’s commitments to the environment.

“We’re calling on the EPA and the Minns Government to put a moratorium on logging in the areas they have identified as “High Density Glider Habitat”. If we are going to save the Greater Glider from extinction, logging simply has to stop in these areas. Justin Field from the Forest Alliance NSW said, “We’ve written to Premier Minns and Forestry Minister Tara Moriatry seeking an urgent meeting about these most recent breaches and the ongoing logging inside the area of the Government's proposed Great Koala National Park.

“A moratorium because time and again Forestry Corporation has shown itself to be unable or unwilling to follow logging rules designed to protect threatened species like the Greater Glider,” Mr Field said.

See the community report to the EPA here.

For further comment contact:

Scott Daines on 0497 129 735

Dailan Pugh on 0400 711054

Justin Field on 0439 205 835