Thursday, February 16, 2012
My Environment film on Leadbeater's Possum
Friday, August 05, 2011
Save the Leadbeater's possum from extinction petition
"Victoria's faunal emblem, the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum, is going extinct due to wildfires and pulp logging. Since 1998, the tiny possums population has declined by 80% from 5000 to a meagre 1000 left in the wild today. The Victorian government logs the habitat of the Leadbeater's possum and sells it to Nippon owned Australian Paper to make Reflex office papers."
We, the taxpayers, subsidise this logging here in Victoria. 1000 is an optimistic estimation for surviving Leadbeater's possum numbers - logging the remaining stands of living trees, along with "salvage logging" of burnt forest will ensure their extinction. This possum doesn't move successfully across open spaces and the remaining population is extremely fragmented. There are none currently in captivity. Some way to treat our State emblem!
"Victoria's faunal emblem, the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum, is going extinct due to wildfires and pulp logging. Since 1998, the tiny possums population has declined by 80% from 5000 to a meagre 1000 left in the wild today. The Victorian government logs the habitat of the Leadbeater's possum and sells it to Nippon owned Australian Paper to make Reflex office papers."
We, the taxpayers, subsidise this logging here in Victoria. 1000 is an optimistic estimation for surviving Leadbeater's possum numbers - logging the remaining stands of living trees, along with "salvage logging" of burnt forest will ensure their extinction. This possum doesn't move successfully across open spaces and the remaining population is extremely fragmented. There are none currently in captivity. Some way to treat our State emblem!
Labels: extinction, Leadbeater's possum, Logging
Monday, May 25, 2009
Logging to Extinction 5
It has been reported that logging of over 33,600 ha of rainforest in a national park buffer zone in central Sumatra has been approved by the Indonesian Government. See Bukit Tigapulah National Park buffer zone threatened. This globally important ecosystem provides a safe haven for many species which are threatened by extinction or are extremely rare - including the critically endangered Sumatran orang-utan, tiger, elephant, sun bear and tapir.
Please sign the petition Stop Logging Indonesian Rainforest and Endangered Orangutan Habitat.
BOS (Borneo Orangutan Survival) Australia Sumatran Tiger Trust International Rhino Foundation
Please sign the petition Stop Logging Indonesian Rainforest and Endangered Orangutan Habitat.
Labels: clear-felling, extinction, Logging
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Logging to Extinction 4
As previously mentioned here, Australian endangered species appear to present little obstacle to logging companies (see below for links). If they do, apparently even a Federal Court ruling might not present too much of a problem.
From yesterday's The Age newspaper - Failing our Wildlife:
"Australian governments are not working to save the country's natural heritage but to destroy it. The Minister for Forestry and Conservation, Eric Abetz, has flagged changing Australian law to let loggers cut the forest habitat of rare and endangered wildlife with impunity.
This follows last month's Federal Court ruling that logging in Tasmania's 10,000 hectare Wielangta Forest must stop because it is threatening three endangered species - the giant Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle (wingspan 2.2 metres), the swift parrot (which flies across Bass Strait in three hours) and the ancient Wielangta stag beetle."
This picture is of one of a pair of swift (sometimes called Swift's) parrots that visited a pond in Wantirna, back in August 2002. It was apparently an annual stopover, but they haven't been back for a while.
The article also mentions the threats from logging to the giant freshwater crayfish (at over a metre long, the world's largest), the embattled Tasmanian devil and the spot-tailed quoll. Anyone who's ever been to a site after logging would be shocked by the result - after clear-felling, the areas are burned off and poisoned with 1080 (to kill animals that might eat new shoots) - the results are wholesale devastation.
While clear-felling tends to be indiscriminate in its destruction of wildlife, it's interesting that areas specific to endangered species have often been targeted for logging. Previous "Logging to Extinction" posts (concerning proposed and "accidental" logging of endangered species' habitat):
1 - Superb parrot (Barmah State Forest) & Leadbeater's possum (Central Highlands) 2 - Long-footed potoroo (Errinundra National Park) 3 - Baw Baw frog
- Swift parrot pic by Andrew Barclay
- Wielganta stag beetle pic is from "At Risk" section of the Wielganta Forest site.
From yesterday's The Age newspaper - Failing our Wildlife:
"Australian governments are not working to save the country's natural heritage but to destroy it. The Minister for Forestry and Conservation, Eric Abetz, has flagged changing Australian law to let loggers cut the forest habitat of rare and endangered wildlife with impunity.
This follows last month's Federal Court ruling that logging in Tasmania's 10,000 hectare Wielangta Forest must stop because it is threatening three endangered species - the giant Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle (wingspan 2.2 metres), the swift parrot (which flies across Bass Strait in three hours) and the ancient Wielangta stag beetle."This picture is of one of a pair of swift (sometimes called Swift's) parrots that visited a pond in Wantirna, back in August 2002. It was apparently an annual stopover, but they haven't been back for a while.The article also mentions the threats from logging to the giant freshwater crayfish (at over a metre long, the world's largest), the embattled Tasmanian devil and the spot-tailed quoll. Anyone who's ever been to a site after logging would be shocked by the result - after clear-felling, the areas are burned off and poisoned with 1080 (to kill animals that might eat new shoots) - the results are wholesale devastation.
While clear-felling tends to be indiscriminate in its destruction of wildlife, it's interesting that areas specific to endangered species have often been targeted for logging. Previous "Logging to Extinction" posts (concerning proposed and "accidental" logging of endangered species' habitat):
- Swift parrot pic by Andrew Barclay
- Wielganta stag beetle pic is from "At Risk" section of the Wielganta Forest site.
Labels: clear-felling, extinction, Logging, swift parrot, Wielganta
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Logging to Extinction 3
As previously mentioned here, Australian endangered species appear to present little obstacle to logging companies:
Logging to extinction 1 - Superb parrot & Leadbeater's possum
Logging to extinction 2 - Long-footed potoroo
The latest potential casualty was reported in The Age: Battle for Baw Baw frog: log it and see
"A leaked PaperlinX memo says VicForests has recommended the logging of the 10 Baw Baw frog environmental coupes on the plateau's southern escarpment."
"The frog, found only in Victoria, has all but disappeared, with the population falling to a few hundred from up to 15,000 in 1984. The proposal to log the 200 hectares is part of the habitat experimental harvesting program to determine if clearing would harm the frog, which is on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature red list, and is protected under state and national laws."
As previously noted, a cynic might think removal of critically endangered species from logging areas was a priority. This isn't a new or local phenomena - a famous U.S. example:
The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
In 1938, the last 20 were located in an old-growth forest called the Singer Tract in Louisiana. The logging rights were held by the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company, who brushed aside pleas from governors and the National Audubon Society, and clearcut the forest. The last known Ivory-billed Woodpecker, was gone by 1944.
Scott Weidensaul, "Ghost of a chance" Smithsonian MagazineAugust 2005 pp 97–102.
Picture from: Museum Victoria
See also: Frogs of Victoria
Logging to extinction 1 - Superb parrot & Leadbeater's possum
Logging to extinction 2 - Long-footed potoroo
The latest potential casualty was reported in The Age: Battle for Baw Baw frog: log it and see"A leaked PaperlinX memo says VicForests has recommended the logging of the 10 Baw Baw frog environmental coupes on the plateau's southern escarpment."
"The frog, found only in Victoria, has all but disappeared, with the population falling to a few hundred from up to 15,000 in 1984. The proposal to log the 200 hectares is part of the habitat experimental harvesting program to determine if clearing would harm the frog, which is on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature red list, and is protected under state and national laws."
As previously noted, a cynic might think removal of critically endangered species from logging areas was a priority. This isn't a new or local phenomena - a famous U.S. example:
The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
In 1938, the last 20 were located in an old-growth forest called the Singer Tract in Louisiana. The logging rights were held by the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company, who brushed aside pleas from governors and the National Audubon Society, and clearcut the forest. The last known Ivory-billed Woodpecker, was gone by 1944.
Scott Weidensaul, "Ghost of a chance" Smithsonian MagazineAugust 2005 pp 97–102.
Picture from: Museum Victoria
See also: Frogs of Victoria
Labels: Baw Baw frog, extinction, Logging
Friday, September 23, 2005
Logging to Extinction 2
Oops, those silly duffers in the Victorian logging industry. Look at that, they’ve gone and logged a major high conservation area and last refuge of an endangered species again! How could they be so unlucky?
The home of the long-footed potoroo, up to 400 square metres of Errinundra National Park has apparently been levelled by loggers. This small, rare member of the kangaroo family has a very limited range, and was only officially described in 1978, when the first live animals were captured. The 300 to 400 year old forest just logged was also home to other endangered wildlife, such as powerful owls and tiger quolls, similarly on their last legs, along with at least 30 other mammal species. The “error” was discovered by conservationists.
As mentioned in my previous post (Logging to Extinction) this kind of “mistake” - the logging of major conservation value, old-growth forest - seems to happen with remarkable frequency, and probably far more often than it is reported. The list of extinct Australian animals is already distressingly long and great care is needed to prevent further extinctions, particularly in sensitive locations.
(On a positive sidenote another related animal, Gilbert’s potoroo, from Western Australia, was rediscovered in 1994, having not been seen since 1879.)
Picture from Department of the Environment and Heritage.
The home of the long-footed potoroo, up to 400 square metres of Errinundra National Park has apparently been levelled by loggers. This small, rare member of the kangaroo family has a very limited range, and was only officially described in 1978, when the first live animals were captured. The 300 to 400 year old forest just logged was also home to other endangered wildlife, such as powerful owls and tiger quolls, similarly on their last legs, along with at least 30 other mammal species. The “error” was discovered by conservationists. As mentioned in my previous post (Logging to Extinction) this kind of “mistake” - the logging of major conservation value, old-growth forest - seems to happen with remarkable frequency, and probably far more often than it is reported. The list of extinct Australian animals is already distressingly long and great care is needed to prevent further extinctions, particularly in sensitive locations.
(On a positive sidenote another related animal, Gilbert’s potoroo, from Western Australia, was rediscovered in 1994, having not been seen since 1879.)
Labels: clear-felling, conservation, extinction, Logging, potoroo
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Logging to Extinction
In weekend news, there was a report on how loggers in the Barmah State Forest have devastated over half the nesting ground of the endangered superb parrot. There are now fewer than 150 superb parrots breeding in Victoria, and they already have problems with illegal capture by collectors. As this logging has destroyed 60 per cent of their nesting colonies it severely compromises their chance of survival as a species.The felling of 6000 tonnes of river red gums has destroyed one of the best remaining stands of old growth red gums in the protected zone, with large numbers of the gums still lying on the ground. This "blunder" is being blamed on the Department forgetting to check maps (and the sick leave absence of a forestry officer) before approving a logging coupe.
There is something uncomfortably familiar about this. In 1994 the habitat of our State emblem, the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum - five hectares of prime habitat forest near Marysville - was also logged after a mapping error. As in the recent case this ecological disaster was discovered accidently, in Barmah by a botanical consultant, and in Marysville by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria.
I'm not a cynic, but a cynic might say that the logging industry finds it necessary to log major conservation value areas whenever the opportunity presents itself and it may be possible to get away with it.
Pictures:Labels: Australian wildlife, extinction, Leadbeater's possum, Logging
