Activists clash with loggers at Flat Rock, claim EPA not protecting glider

Frustration came to a head on Friday, May 24, at Flat Rock State Forest where conservationists, including members of South East Forest Rescue (SEFR), staged an anti-logging blockade.

A police spokesperson said a 56-year-old man was arrested during the protest. Police allege he refused to leave the forest after being given a direction.

He was charged with fail to leave forestry area on request of authorised officer and will appear at Milton Local Court on Thursday, June 20.

The group where at the logging site, north west of Termeil, because they say the NSW EPA failed to respond to their calls for action, which includes 282 potential breaches of logging rules across the state.

SEFR spokesperson Scott Daines said an audit conducted by the group found nearly 80 per cent of searches for the greater glider by the Forestry Corporation of NSW - a mandated search required within an hour of sunset - didn't comply.

"This is a blatant breach of the logging laws," he said. "The law quite clearly says that operations must not be conducted unless compliant surveys have been undertaken."

Mr Daines said inaction by the EPA to stop the breaches has forced his organsiation into action, attempting to stop operations at Flat Rock.

On Monday, May 27, the EPA announced a change where Forestry Corporation need to implement a 25 metre exclusion zone around any tree where the glider is sighted. The search and survey now is to start within 30 minutes of sunset to "increase the likelihood of observing gliders leaving their dens."

Forestry Corporation said without these changes the current conditions would affect the state's wood supply.

Conservations called the amendments as "a roadmap to the extinction of the greater glider".

"The EPA is choosing to protect the logging industry over protecting an endangered species," WWF conservation scientist Dr Kita Ashman said.

"There was no ambiguity about the previous protocols, they clearly stated all surveys needed to start at a time that would allow for identifying den trees - which didn't suit Forestry Corp.

"Now what we have is the removal of that requirement, which means only the first survey will be of any use for identifying dens."

The changes follow an EPA announcement in February imposing new rules requiring spotlight searches to be carried out at night.

Conservation groups critical of the changes include Wilderness Australia, Nature Conservation Council NSW, North East Forest Alliance, North Coast Environment Council and the National Parks Association of NSW.

"The NSW Government repeatedly claims that the EPA is the independent 'cop on the beat' responsible for holding Forestry Corporation to account," National Parks Association CEO Gary Dunnett said.

"Yet today's [Monday] announcement makes it clear that, rather than get the survey methods for greater gliders right, all that they are protecting is Forestry Corporation's wood supply quotas.

"If the regulator can't get it right Environment Ministers Sharpe and Plibersek need to step in and give gliders a chance."