Greater gliders may go extinct without an intervention by activist scientists
A conversation with Andrew Wong from Wilderness Australia
For this article we’re joined by Andrew Wong—a forest ecologist and Wilderness Australia’s Operations Manager. Andrew has been heavily involved in science and activism in Tallaganda for many years, and he’s now working on the collaborative proposal to convert Tallaganda State Forest to a protected national park. (In case you missed it, we’re running 30 km on June 1st to advocate and fundraise for this proposal—read more here!) This is a longer read but a fascinating one. We’ll learn from Andrew about the history of Tallaganda and plans for it’s future, how to identify greater glider den trees to help conserve their habitat, and why it’s so important to combine science with activism.
Can you tell us about your background and your role at Wilderness Australia? What drew you to this role?
I’ve been a forest ecologist for thirty years, and my main interest has been in old growth forests and wilderness. In the 1990s I had a number of study transects that I worked on over long periods of time for the Australian National University, for projects on feral animals and micro bats. You get to know every tree and a lot of the individual animals that live there when you study an area intensively over weeks or in some cases a year or more. Two or three times I went to study sites to collect more data, and found that they had been logged. There’s nothing more depressing to a field scientist than seeing their long-term study sites just completely disappear. The last time that happened to me was in Glenbog State Forest, at Brown Mountain between Cooma and Bega.
I decided at that moment that there wasn’t much benefit in studying animals as they went extinct. It was more important to stop them declining in the first place, and that meant tackling the threats to their survival. Since then I’ve bounced between working as a researcher and an environmental activist. A conclusion I’ve come to is that activists who aren’t scientists, and scientists who aren’t activists, can both be effective at stopping biodiversity loss and extinctions—but there is no more powerful combination than an ‘activist scientist.’
I ran a campaign to protect Glenbog State Forest, and as a result about 90% of it is now protected in the South East Forests National Park—including my old study site. My current role in Wilderness Australia lets me focus fully on being an activist scientist. As Operations Manager I oversee the organisation (in close collaboration with our Project Manager Ella Magee-Carr) and have the freedom to really find out how far we can take the activist-scientist model.
For those who might not be familiar, can you provide an overview of who Wilderness Australia are?
Wilderness Australia evolved from the National Parks and Primitive Areas Council that existed in the early 20th Century, the first big nature protection group in Australia. The bushwalkers, cartographers, cavers and scientists, who decided to become activists in order to protect the places they walked and worked in, created some of Australia’s first national parks, including Kosciuszko and the Blue Mountains.
For most of our history we were named the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, in reference to our birth place - the campaign to stop limestone mining at the Colong Caves deep in the southern Blue Mountains. It was Australia’s first corporate campaign for nature protection, and resulted in that area being added to the Blue Mountains National Park.
Since then, as Australia’s longest-running advocate for wilderness protection, we have become experts at finding, assessing and protecting wilderness areas. That has included successfully passing wilderness legislation in NSW (there is now over two million hectares of declared wilderness areas, which receive a higher level of protection than national park), the inscription of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, and the proposal for the declaration of the Wollemi wilderness area (where the Wollemi Pine lies hidden).
Our goal is to protect nature by protecting wilderness. Wilderness is another name for whole and intact ecosystems, in which species have their best chance to survive climate change and other threats. In protecting the resilience of nature we hope to avert a wave of species extinctions that scientists fear is approaching in Australia.
You’ve spent a lot of time in Tallaganda over the years, what makes this region so special to you?
I originally proposed a national park for Tallaganda State Forest in the 1990s, under the Regional Forest Agreement process. This proposal resulted in the Gourock National Park in the south, the Tallaganda State Conservation Area in the north, and the Tallaganda National Park in between. Though I can’t claim credit for most of the Tallaganda National Park, as they located it in the opposite area to what I’d argued for—it’s mostly in areas that aren’t good for logging, with most of the best forest remaining in the state forest section and still available for logging.
Tallaganda is a really unique environment. It spreads along 60 km of the crest of the Great Dividing Range, with peaks over 1,400 metres in elevation. It is a high altitude old growth forest and rainforest, dominated by the species that greater gliders prefer as their habitat and food source. For this reason, Tallaganda appears to be a stronghold for the species, with high numbers of the animal that are seen in very few other places. The greater glider is classified as endangered both nationally and in NSW, and was only uplisted to that status in the last year or so. Over the last twenty years its numbers have plummeted, approximately halving in that time. This is an incredible decline over just three generations of the species. We fear that the species is headed for extinction. But if it is to survive, it will be because its few remaining strongholds survive. That can’t happen if they are logged, because logging is so destructive to the habitat of species like the greater glider.
In partnership with WWF and South East Forest Rescue we ran a campaign to stop logging in Tallaganda from late last year, resulting in Forestry Corporation of NSW ending logging operations in the whole state forest in January this year. Unfortunately, they are about to start logging again in Tallaganda this month.
What are you working on now for the Tallaganda region?
Wilderness Australia and the National Parks Association of NSW are working together on creating reserve proposals for many of the state forests in NSW, including Tallaganda. We will be collecting the scientific evidence, including threatened species records, to make the argument to the NSW government for the remainder of Tallaganda State Forest to be added to the national park.
This work follows on from our campaign (run with WWF and South East Forest Rescue) to stop logging in this area, which itself followed on from a three-year project by WWF to study greater gliders in Tallaganda. Led by Dr Kita Ashman, the study examined the effects of the 2019-2020 Black Summer Bushfires on greater glider populations. They collared gliders and tracked their movements, and put up specially-built nest boxes to provide habitat. That work was the basis for our understanding of just how important this area is as a stronghold for the species. It is another example of how science can lead to activism to achieve a result.
With the proposed new logging, we are using the government’s own logging rules to try to save greater glider habitat. Under those rules—called the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (CIFOA)—exclusion zones are declared around important environmental features. In this case, the den trees of greater gliders—when they are identified—have a circle of 50 metres radius applied around them in which no logging activity of any kind is allowed. This means identifying a den tree effectively creates a 0.78 hectare permanent informal reserve, so we are on the ground identifying as many den trees as we can. In this way we can use a combination of science and activism to save Tallaganda, one den tree at a time.
What’s the process of identifying greater glider den trees?
Den trees are old trees—usually more than 150 years old—in which naturally-formed hollows have been scratched out and converted to a den by a greater glider. Gliders sleep in these safe hollows during the day and raise their young in them. It’s important that hollows are well insulated, as greater gliders experience heat stress, particularly in summer.
The easiest way to find den trees is to go spotlighting at night. Just after dusk, when gliders are first emerging to feed in the canopy (they have the same diet as koalas—eucalyptus leaves), there is a window of opportunity in which they can be seen exiting their hollow or sitting next to it. Scanning the canopy using bright torches lets us pick up the reflection from a glider’s eyeshine—much like you see the eyeshine of wildlife or stock animals in car headlights when driving at night, or the ‘red eye’ effect in photos using a flash.
Can you tell us what’s been happening in Tallaganda since the first Stop Work Order last year?
Wilderness Australia submitted a ‘Stop Work Order’ request to the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) over Tallaganda logging in August 2023. This was on the basis that we had found glider den trees that Forestry Corporation of NSW (the agency responsible for logging in state forests) had not. The EPA, as the independent regulator of public land logging, issued a Stop Work Order after they inspected the site and found a dead greater glider adjacent to the logging area. The order was on the basis that logging operations were likely to be felling unidentified den trees, or the feed trees immediately surrounding them.
After that we worked in partnership with WWF and South East Forest Rescue to document many more den trees. We published a report, ‘What Extinction Looks Like’, that suggested more than 1,200 glider den trees had been destroyed or had logging within 50 metres. These would be considered breaches of the CIFOA logging rules. Ultimately the EPA extended their 40-day Stop Work Order another three times, leading to all logging in Tallaganda halting for 152 days. After that, Forestry Corporation voluntarily pulled out of those compartments for good in January this year.
In May they announced they would begin logging in another part of Tallaganda, Compartment 2428. Logging compartments are the planning units used by Forestry Corporation, and are usually a few hundred hectares in size. Since then we have been working to find den trees throughout that compartment, spotlighting often in rain and heavy fog (this kind of weather is the reason why we have giant eucalypts and exceptional glider habitat there, so we can’t really complain).
What’s the difference between state forest and national park, and what do we gain by converting state forest to national park?
State forests and national parks are two of the largest public land tenures in NSW. State forests can be logged, mined and hunted in. National parks are maintained with strict environmental rules which exclude these activities.
The fact is that if there is glider habitat in a state forest, it will eventually be logged. Given enough time for logging, the majority of the greater glider habitat that remains will exist only in national parks. This is not nearly enough to maintain the species above what is known as the extinction threshold—the level at which numbers of the species drop below the point where it can maintain itself. Below that level, it will breed at numbers that are too low to sustain its populations, and it will inevitably decline until it becomes extinct. There is no doubt that the glider strongholds that exist within state forests like Tallaganda are required to keep greater gliders above this threshold.
So converting state forests to national parks means protecting them from logging—this will give the greater glider a good chance at avoiding extinction.
In your opinion, what are the benefits of national park conversion over simply ending native forest logging in NSW (and nationally)?
There is a good possibility of native forest logging ending in NSW in the next few years. This is because over-logging for decades has left them without enough wood to sustain the industry in the long-term. This self-created wood-supply crisis was magnified when the Black Summer fires burnt huge areas of forest, further reducing trees available for logging. Native forest logging has already ended in Western Australia and Victoria, just in the last year.
If logging ends but these forests remain in state forest, they will not be managed primarily for their conservation values. Who knows what other threatening processes might be allowed in the future, including conversion to plantations, land clearing, firewood collection or mining. I’ve learnt from thirty years as an environmental campaigner that the only truly secure solution for nature is a national park.
How else can individuals and communities engage with Wilderness Australia and support the campaign to protect Tallaganda?
Spreading the word about the importance of greater gliders and forests like Tallaganda to friends, family and colleagues is the most important thing you can do. ‘Invisible’ forests and species often don’t get protected because without visibility there is no public pressure. To stay updated you can sign up to our email list and follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). WWF also has an excellent resource on greater gliders.
Helping fund our work through donations is also appreciated. There is a direct relationship between donations and how many hectares of forest and greater gliders will be protected. For example, finding ten den trees on average costs us about $500 in travel and accommodation. That means $50 can save one den tree (along with between one and three greater gliders) and create a permanent informal reserve that is 0.78 hectares in size (that’s a circle of 100 m diameter). This is a great legacy to be able to create for $50.
You can make a donation to the Tallaganda 30x30 fundraiser, where all raised funds will support the campaign by National Parks Association of NSW and Wilderness Australia to convert Tallaganda State Forest into national park. This fundraiser will be active until the end of June.
Longer term, donations can be made directly to Wilderness Australia (https://www.wildernessaustralia.org.au/give), National Parks Association of NSW (https://npansw.org.au/npa/donate/), and WWF-Australia (https://wwf.org.au/donate/).
Thank you Andrew!
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"Invisible forests and species often don’t get protected because without visibility there is no public pressure." 👈🏼
Thanks to all the scientists and activists (and activist scientists!) who make these important ecosystems visible 🙏.