How we protect Greater Gliders and their habitat
VicForests timber harvesting practices prioritises the protection of habitat and species of concern, including the Greater Glider.
Our management of values is informed by the latest science and guided by best practice. Which is why we already had many measures in place to protect the Greater Glider. These measure align with many of the recommended conservation and recovery actions outlined in the latest Conservation Advice.
As a leader in sustainable forest management, VicForests also contributed to the latest Conservation Advice for the Great Glider.
Our timber harvesting operations occur within a comprehensive forest management framework supported by the Comprehensive Adequate and Representative (CAR) reserve system, the Code of Practice for Timber Production (as amended 2022), Actions Statements and Forest Management Plans.
The CAR reserve system makes up a substantial proportion of public land. Timber harvesting operations are excluded from these areas, and protect and maintain large areas of suitable habitat and also support large populations of the Greater Glider.
Harvesting reforms
Since 2019 we have expanded our application of variable retention harvesting. This includes an increased focus on adaptive approaches to selecting and applying harvesting and regeneration systems that retain and protect a broad range of forest values including the Greater Glider. For example, we have measures in place to prioritise the retention of hollow-bearing trees as well as recruit future hollow-bearing trees for current and future habitat for native species.
We achieve this by:
- assessing all coupes for the presence of threatened species (both flora and fauna) and habitat values
- protecting hollow-bearing trees and recruiting future hollow-bearing trees
- undertaking pre-harvest habitat tree surveys to estimate of habitat tree density, category composition, and distribution across a coupe
- connecting habitat patches, allowing animals to move between areas in the forest
- regenerating forests with lower intensity regeneration burning operations and increased use of mechanical disturbance.
This approach means clearfell harvesting now represents a very minor portion of all VicForests harvesting. Our greater use of variable retention silviculture can see up to 80% of a forest stand retained within a coupe after timber harvesting.
The Greater Glider Action Statement
VicForests operates in accordance with the Government’s Greater Glider Action Statement. This was triggered wherever a density of Greater Gliders is equal to or greater than 5 individuals per spotlight kilometre. However, following the 2019–2020 bushfires this density was dropped to 3 per spotlight kilometre. The management actions outlined in the Statement include:
- retaining at least 40% of tree basal area across a timber harvesting coupe
- prioritising live, hollow bearing trees.
The Action Statement also identified the immediate protection of more than 96,000 hectares of State forest in the Strathbogie Ranges, in the Central Highlands, in East Gippsland and near Mirboo North. Timber harvesting is excluded from these areas.
The Code
VicForests complies with relevant Greater Glider protection requirements detailed in the Code.
According to the Greater Glider Action Statement, the retention of 40% basal area replaces the Code’s requirement to apply a protection area of approximately 100 hectares of suitable habitat where records or surveys in East Gippsland report a relative abundance of more than 10 individuals per spotlight kilometre or equivalent measure. However, we continue to apply both measures.
There are other prescriptions and protections within the Code which provide protection of habitat and connectivity across the landscape. These include:
- Leadbeater’s Possum habitat and detection protections
- Yellow-bellied Glider protection areas
- large (>2.5m diameter) tree protections
- pre-1900 Ash tree protections
- riparian buffers.
Old Growth Forest protection
In accordance with Government policy, VicForests assesses all coupes for the presence of Old Growth Forest and all Old Growth Forest identified is protected.
Additional protections for greater gliders following
the 2019–2020 bushfires
Immediately following the 2019–2020 bushfires we halted all harvesting in the areas impacted by the fires until greater understanding of the extent and impact of the fires was established.
This included an assessment of threats to the Greater Glider as part of the Threatened Species and Communities Risk Assessment (TSCRA) required under the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA). Through this assessment DELWP identified modelled high-quality Greater Glider habitat predominantly outside the reserve system and with limited impact from the 2019–20 bushfires.
As an interim protection measure DELWP identified 50 forest compartments in East Gippsland RFA where timber harvesting must be excluded from 85% of the high-quality habitat.
Prior to commencing operations, we updated our post-fire salvage prescriptions. This included:
- placing increased importance on protecting hollow bearing trees – which was recognised in the latest conservation advice for the Greater Glider
- starting our program in fire-killed Ash forests where we retained all live trees unless they had to be removed for safety reasons
- identifying and protecting 500 hectares of habitat within 3,500 metres of coupes within the fire footprint, with greater focus on protecting habitat in unburnt or lightly burnt fire refuges, modelled Old Growth, areas with threatened species detections and mature forest elements.
VicForests application of immediate protection measures following the fires was highlighted in the recent report of the Victorian Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) – Major Event Review of the 2019–2020 bushfires as a ‘good model that could be more widely applied around Australia’. It also noted that VicForests’ retention harvesting and regeneration systems should result in improved protection for threatened species and result in more resilient state forest ecosystems.
Monitoring for species persistence
VicForests is continuing to undertake post-harvest monitoring of Greater Gliders in a range of coupes.
Our current monitoring program is finding Greater Gliders are persisting within and around coupes harvested using VicForests variable retention harvest systems due to the retention of important habitat features including hollow-bearing trees and feed trees.
What's next?
We will continue to adapt our management in response to new information and will consider the updated Greater Glider conservation advice, and any future National Recovery Plan, in determining changes to protections, priority management actions and changes to our management systems.
