Queensland Conservation Council Protected Areas campaigner Nicky Moffat stated
Logging on this a part of Queensland ought to have led to 2024 if the 25-year settlement between State Authorities, timber and conservation sectors in 1999 was honoured.
It’s clear that with regards to the way forward for State Forests within the Maryborough area, nature is being left on the chopping block.
As a substitute of logging slowing down within the habitat of the attractive better glider, it’s ramping up. Utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery on Watch on Nature, the Wilderness Society, we recognized websites logged in better glider habitat at Bauple State Forest between Might and December 2024.
A deal is a deal, we would like the Crisafulli Authorities to honour it and shield these forests without end, not endorse a closing smash and seize from invaluable endangered species habitats.
The forestry minister received’t even embrace nature when he decides his rushed plan for the sector, which he’s promised to ship by October this 12 months.
The previous State Authorities led by Labor’s Steven Miles introduced in August 2024 a big a part of St Mary State Forest could be protected as a part of its Better Glider Forest Park.
We have been elated on the time – lastly somebody cared in regards to the gliders.
It’s devastating to have come so near defending this wonderful showcase of pure marvel for our youngsters and theirs, solely to have the Crisafulli Authorities mark it up prepared for logging a couple of months later.
These are public forests. It’s a shame that so little care is being taken to make sure their biodiversity values persist.
We’re not sure whether or not these rangers and forestry officers managing St Mary State Forest are conscious of its conservation significance or the presence of this species.
We now have alerted the related ministers in a letter final month however have thus far not heard again.
Fortunately logging has not but begun and we hope there may be time to avoid wasting this irreplaceable habitat.
Citizen scientists and conservation teams are calling on the Crisafulli Authorities to instantly halt plans to log the forest close to Maryborough and Tiaro, and to decide to ending logging within the Japanese Hardwoods native forestry area.
St Mary resident Tina Raveneau and fellow naturalists frequently conduct surveys alongside a street via St Mary State Forest 1, the place they usually discover and {photograph} greater than 10 Southern Better Gliders (Petauroides volans). The excessive density inhabitants has been documented over greater than 12 months, and most just lately noticed on 19 Might 2025.
I’m dismayed as a result of just lately there’s been paint sprayed on the bushes with symbols just like the forestry division makes use of when it’s marking out an space earlier than logging.
We now have seen better gliders on these very bushes. They’ll’t ethically take these bushes, or disturb this forest with out damaging the feed bushes and dens of a particularly susceptible animal which we might quickly lose altogether.
Pictures: Better gliders in St Mary State Forest 1 and adjoining street reserve, taken by Suzanne Pearson in April 2025
Large Bay Burnett Surroundings Council (WBBEC) coordinator Jennifer Waithman is main a push to have the biodiversity values of the native forests in her area documented and thought of as a part of the Queensland Authorities’s Timber Motion Plan, due for launch in October, now with out the enter of conservation teams.
I might like to see this space protected completely, and wildlife tourism take off right here.
The native forests in our area are magical, and I feel guests would like to expertise these unimaginable nocturnal creatures for themselves. They’re price a lot greater than the worth of timber, and it’s devastating to suppose that’s the solely monetary worth the Queensland Authorities is recognising when it plans the way forward for these forests.
Timber is an important commodity, however it’s important to realise the habitat is invaluable too. It takes eucalypts greater than 100 years to start out forming hollows that animals just like the better glider depend upon. However bushes are being taken earlier than they get an opportunity to mature. It’s merely not sustainable.
Teams write to Ministers
QCC and WBBEC have written to the Minister for Main Industries, Anthony Perrett, and Minister for Surroundings, Andrew Powell (PDF 336k), alerting them to the presence of the endangered species, which has few formally recorded sightings close by.
The letter states:
We perceive from conversations with sustainability, ecology and forestry coverage workers in your division that the Queensland Authorities has by no means referred its native forestry harvest operations to the federal atmosphere minister for evaluation below the EPBC Act, although the presence of P.volans and its effectively documented vulnerabilities to timber harvesting have been recognized.
We imagine this was a mistake and would urge you to rectify.
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