Endangered greater glider found dead next to department logging site

Warning: Contains distressing content

An endangered greater glider has been found dead next to a Victorian Department of Environment logging operation in the Yarra Ranges National Park, sparking a furious response from conservationists.

Forest Fire Management Victoria, which operates within the department, has been conducting fuel breaks in the national park and removing what it says are hazardous trees.

Victorian National Park Association executive director Matt Ruchel said his organisation had warned the fire management agency, the department secretary, and federal and state ministers’ offices about recorded sightings of greater gliders and Leadbeater’s possums in trees identified for removal on May 6.

The dead glider was found near the southern boundary of the Yarra Ranges National Park.

It comes after a campaign by the Victorian National Parks Association and others to halt the removal of old habitat trees in the Yarra Ranges National Park.

“We are furious at this deadly failure to take the survival of threatened wildlife seriously,” Ruchel said.

“State and federal environment ministers need to fulfil their responsibilities and stop these work immediately. The situation urgently requires a full and proper ecological assessment.”

Greater gliders and Leadbeater’s possums rely on hollow-bearing trees for habitat and survival, making them particularly vulnerable to logging, harvesting and fires.

Greater gliders – scientific name petauroides volans – are now so rare that the species was in 2022 listed as endangered – a classification the federal government gives to animals at imminent risk of extinction in the wild.

Conservationists discovered a dead greater glider beneath logged trees in the Yarra Ranges National Park.

Environmental Justice Australia special counsel Danya Jacobs said the destruction of habitat critical for endangered species was “clearly” breaking federal environment laws designed to protect greater gliders and Leadbeater’s possums.

“Destroying scores of ancient hollow-bearing trees home to critically endangered Leadbeater’s possums and endangered greater gliders, and killing those species in the process, is plainly illegal under federal environment law, and it has to stop,” Jacobs said.

Environmental Justice Australia has written to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Victorian Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos, detailing allegations that the Forest Fire Management Victoria operations are in contravention of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

The act requires the referral, assessment and approval of all operations likely to have “significant impacts” on listed threatened species.

Greater gliders were in 2022 listed as endangered.Credit: Wayne Tindall

“We specifically told the government that greater gliders were nesting in this tree,” said Wildlife of the Central Highlands spokesperson Blake Nesbit.

“This is disgraceful, and has to stop. Even when notified of the presence of a federally listed threatened wildlife, the information was ignored – with deadly consequences.”

WWF conservation scientist Dr Kita Ashman said hollow trees were “like gold” for forest-dwelling mammals like greater gliders. “Hollows can take hundreds of years to form and without hollows greater gliders and many other threatened species simply can’t survive,” she said.

“It’s outrageous that despite warnings these trees had precious, occupied hollows they were levelled anyway and at least one glider killed. A tree planted right now will not have a usable greater glider hollow in our lifetime. It’s no wonder we face an extinction crisis.”

The state Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action was contacted for comment.

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