Many of our most important wilderness areas and natural landscapes remain outside the formal reserve system, and are subject to ongoing threats like logging, roading, hunting and inappropriate fire management.

Following our continued success in shielding Tallaganda forest on the NSW South Coast from systematic illegal logging activity, we must now focus on numerous other forest areas that are also threatened by logging. Glenbog, Dampier and Tallaganda forests are illustrated below.

Map of State Forest boundaries of Tallaganda, Dampier and Glenbog, in south-east NSW.

Glenbog State Forest

Aside from Tallaganda, Glenbog State Forest is the only other large area of tall wet forest that was not devastated by the Black Summer bushfires in the NSW south coast. Fire ‘refugia’ like these are now critical to the survival of species whose populations have crashed as a result, like the nationally endangered greater glider.

Home to giant old-growth trees, many with trunks at least a meter and a half wide, this forest connects Wadbilliga National Park and the declared Brogo Wilderness Area to the South East Forests National Park, created with the help of Wilderness Australia twenty five years ago.

A snapshot of Glenbog State Forest, this area will undoubtedly be destroyed by logging if it does not become a national park.

Home to giant old-growth trees, many with trunks at least a meter and a half wide, this forest connects Wadbilliga National Park and the declared Brogo Wilderness Area to the South East Forests National Park, created with the help of Wilderness Australia twenty five years ago.

A brown barrel (Eucalyptus fastigata) that is at least two hundred years old, in Glenbog State Forest. Trees like this are home to threatened species like the yellow-bellied glider and sooty owl.

Dampier State Forest

Dampier State Forest has been heavily targeted for logging, and is still under threat. Just last year Forestry Corp NSW were fined $230,000 for logging in an exclusion zone, an area of viable habitat of the Eastern Horseshoe Bat.

A ridgeline in Deua National Park, viewed from Hanging Mountain, displays dead trees from the Black Summer bushfires. The rugged blue hills beyond that ridge are Dampier State Forest, including Bumbo Creek (pictured below), of which this ridge forms the northern watershed.

Bumbo Creek, adjoining Deua National Park, is surrounded by unprotected tall forest threatened by logging.

The hazy mountains and valleys of the subalpine Tallaganda forest.

The Stop Work Order placed on logging operations in Tallaganda State Forest is due to end - for the third time - on the 20th of December. We are working to ensure operations do not resume again.

Dampier, Glenbog and Tallaganda are just three of dozens of forested wilderness areas across the state that desperately need protection from logging and other threats.

Our plan to expand the national park estate to secure these areas involves preparing National Park proposals for existing State Forests, informed by scientific research.

These proposals will require:

• Comprehensive mapping: The habitat mapping of threatened species, like the Greater Glider, acts as a blueprint for our conservation efforts. As an umbrella species, the conservation of Greater Glider habitat cascades down to many other species.
  
  
• Field work: We will continue to conduct in-field wildlife surveys for many forest areas, as we have been for Tallaganda, to gather records of den trees, presence of threatened species and evidence of forestry breaches.
  
  
• Science and conservation reports: In collaboration with other environment groups, the work we undertake or commission will form the basis of science and conservation reports for these State Forests, which are critical for making the case for their protection.
  
  
• Public education: Without the support of the wider community we are unlikely to succeed. In 2024, we will continue our ongoing efforts to promote wilderness areas and highlight their threats using accessible and scientifically backed information.
  
  
• A transition plan: We will work with others to develop an achievable roadmap for a transition out of native forest logging and into 100% plantations, based on the end to native forest logging that has already been announced for Western Australia and Victoria.
  
  
• Legal advice: We may need comprehensive legal advice that presents, for example, the legal requirements of Federal and State biodiversity conservation legislation, and how they conflict with the Regional Forest Agreement legislation that currently controls native forest logging operations.