Threatened glider sightings in proposed Great Koala National Park spark another urgent call to cease logging

A new report shows threatened glider species have been spotted in the proposed site of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP), prompting renewed calls to protect the area from logging.

The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water employed drones between April and July 2024 to survey 169 sites within the proposed GKNP. 

The sites include state forest and national parks, and the goal was to count koalas and other tree-dwelling species, such as southern greater gliders and yellow-bellied gliders, in the study area. 

The drones covered more than 4,000km.

A government assessment based on the surveys showed southern greater gliders were distributed across the proposed park, and that yellow-bellied gliders, while rare, were also recorded in the area. 

The promised 176,000 hectares of state forest and national park is currently under consideration for formal protection by the NSW government, however it continues to be logged.

The government assessment has reignited calls to halt logging in the region.

@midnorthcoaster

What issue will be deciding your vote this election? #midnorthcoast #australia #portmacquarie #streettalk #voxpop #election

Community members rally

In mid-April, in the wake of the report, community members gathered at Orara East State Forest, a part of the proposed GNKP site where logging continues.

“Orara East is a key part of the Great Koala National Park and is a recovering, high-conservation value forest that is still providing refuge for some of our most vulnerable species,” NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson said.

“It is one of the places that is key to the Minns Labor Government’s promise to protect - but they are allowing it to be logged without even checking the threatened species and wildlife that lives there.”

It’s been two years since the NSW Government committed to establishing a Great Koala National Park on the Mid North Coast.

Higginson said the government report “states clearly that both [glider] species need large, connected, high-quality forests to persist in the wild. Yet instead of protecting these forests, the government is letting them be destroyed”.

Not a meaningful assessment

Higginson said only one glider survey was undertaken in Orara East for the report, stating it is “not a meaningful ecological assessment”.

“The government’s failure to properly survey the area has allowed the Forestry Corporation to move in unchecked.”

Higginson said “every week of delay makes the Great Koala National Park weaker, smaller, more fragmented and less great”.

Thumbnail: (L) Image from the Glider observations in the Mid North Coast assessment area report (R) community members at Orara East State Forest, supplied by Sue Higginson MP.