We can now confirm that after a concerted campaign by Wilderness Australia to find and record the den trees of the endangered greater glider, Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW) has withdrawn from two significant strongholds: Tallaganda and Badja State Forests.

Our systematic den tree surveys began back in August last year, when we discovered that critical areas of Tallaganda were being logged. After forcing FCNSW out, we then turned our attention to Badja, also scheduled for logging. During the 15 months we have been campaigning on this issue, not a single tree in either forest was cut down. Now there is a good chance they never will be.

We are almost certain that logging will not return until after the NSW Government makes its decision next year on whether to end native forest logging altogether. If that decision ends the industry once and for all, then we may well have just saved two of the few remaining greater glider strongholds left in southern NSW.

A greater glider sits directly in the path of the logging which we stopped last week in Badja. This glider is safe, for now.

Saving Badja

Just over a month ago, logging machinery were trucked into Badja State Forest. They were ready to start intensive logging in one of the most important colonies remaining for the endangered greater glider.

For the next three weeks we spent almost every night forcing our way through punishingly thick vegetation to find and record greater glider den trees. We began in the area surrounding the logging machines. As a result, they left that area and moved to a different logging compartment. We immediately found as many den trees there as possible. In the end we found 57 greater glider den trees and a rarely found koala - all within the area about to be logged.

Late last week, we discovered that all logging machinery had been removed. FCNSW have apparently now abandoned Badja altogether.

Although there has been no official announcement, what we’ve heard behind the scenes makes it clear that with so many den tree exclusion zones FCNSW were simply unable to log, and gave up.

Depending on what happens over the next few months, we may have just saved Badja forever.

These efforts have been directly supported by a group of very generous funders who deserve special mention. Purves Environmental Fund, Christopher Grubb, Diversicon Environmental Foundation, Wild Country Environmental Fund, Community Impact Foundation and Ethinvest Foundation, all deserve great thanks for achieving this result. We couldn’t have achieved this outcome without their support.

The koala we found during spotlighting surveys, just a few hundred metres from the logging machinery. This koala was directly threatened by road-clearing work, which was aimed right at the tree it was sitting in. It was a close call: we stopped work in that area the day it was supposed to begin. As far as we know, the koala wandered peacefully off.

Saving Tallaganda

The pattern of events in Badja almost exactly matches what happened in Tallaganda over the course of the past year. Over the last 12 months, FCNSW tried to log three separate areas. In total we found 111 den trees and successfully blocked them from starting in all three locations.

In September, we received informal confirmation from FCNSW that they had also completely abandoned Tallaganda, until a decision is made on the future of forestry next year. They acknowledged that our den tree surveys were the reason for their withdrawal.

A few weeks ago, one of the planned operations was removed from their public logging schedule.

A greater glider sits in the stop of the tree, filmed from the air during thermal drone surveys undertaken by Ripper Corp in partnership with Wilderness Australia. Image copyright Ripper Corp.

We share this victory with WWF-Australia - who also funded a large portion of the groundwork - and South East Forest Rescue, who have both contributed significantly to this work.

We’d also like to acknowledge the commercial drone company Ripper Corp, who has conducted thermal drone surveys in both Tallaganda and Badja, providing critical data on greater glider locations and further den tree records. They’ve given much of their time to this campaign and deserve much credit for the outcome.

Future surveys

While we breathe a small sigh of relief at the outcomes we share with you today, other greater glider strongholds are still being targeted for logging. And so, our survey efforts must continue. If you can, please consider making a donation to help us achieve another successful outcome for greater gliders.