Koala populations are “high and stable” in NSW forests, with large populations thriving in public forests that, importantly, are not influenced by timber harvesting.
That is according to new research published by Dr Brad Law, the principal research scientist at the NSW Department of Primary Industries, and supported by Leroy Gonsalves, Traecey Brassil and Isobel Kerr.
Published on Monday, Broad-scale acoustic monitoring of koala populations suggests metapopulation stability, but varying bellow rate, in the face of major disturbances and climate extremes, has, for the first time, used passive acoustic monitoring to analyse populations in state forests now earmarked for the Great Koala National Park.
According to Dr Law’s research, “regulated timber harvesting in state forests had no effect on the trend of (koalas) either metric nor did land tenure,” with state forests (where timber harvesting is permitted) or national parks having little impact on the population of koalas.
The findings come after a 7-year study between 2015 and 2021, covering more than 224 sites spread across more than 8.5 million hectares of forest area. Capturing the 2019/20 Black Summer Fires, the study reports that whilst Koalas are cryptic, “acoustic sampling over many thousands of hours, combined with semi-automated call recognition, has proved exceptionally effective at detecting the species,” with high precision.
“Occupancy was high over an extensive area of habitat,” the research said, with “the stable trend maintained despite a severe drought that led to mega-fires burning about 30% of their habitat in 2019.”
The new research comes weeks after Dr Law’s published, GPS tracking reveals koalas Phascolarctos cinereus use mosaics of different forest ages after environmentally regulated timber harvesting, which used GPS-tracking and remote sensing, including LiDAR satellites, to create timber mosaics to evaluate the impact of timber harvesting on Koala coups.
Working with Forestry Corp and the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, Dr Law said GPS tracking, combined with remote sensing, “provides a high-resolution picture of how individual koalas use the forest 5-10 years after timber harvesting.”
“These results strongly support our acoustic surveys (previously published) demonstrating high occupancy (of Koalas) in northeast NSW and no difference in density between harvested forest in the state forest and controlled forest in the national park,” Dr Law said, adding that it also offers insights into how koalas use areas that are heavily managed or where regeneration and restoration is a significant part of the landscape.
According to Maree McCaskill, the CEO of Timber NSW, both research projects address alarmism over Koala numbers. “Both show beyond a shadow of a doubt that Koala numbers on the North Coast are stable, and in some cases are increasing.” Concerns over declining numbers in the North East Coast are the main driver of the Great Koala National Park, which is now subject to an extensive consultative process.
Penny Sharpe, the NSW Environmental Minister and the powerbroker behind the push to establish the Park described the decision “as the most significant environmental commitment in NSW history,” adding that it was “essential to save koalas from extinction.”
NSW is in the midst of a biodiversity crisis, with the NSW Department for Environment and Heritage publishing the State’s Biodiversity Report and Outlook for 2024. However, whilst habitat destruction continues to surge across the state, native forestry has steadily declined since at least 2016 – with forestry’s footprint dwarfed by agriculture and infrastructure.
NSW is in the midst of a biodiversity crisis, with the NSW Department for Environment and Heritage publishing the State’s Biodiversity Report and Outlook for 2024. However, whilst habitat destruction continues to surge across the state, native forestry has steadily declined since at least 2016 – with forestry’s footprint dwarfed by agriculture and infrastructure.
“Agriculture (where trees are felled for farming) and infrastructure (for real estate development) dwarfs native forestry,” Ms McCaskill told Wood Central yesterday. “When you look at virgin forests, which are pristine and untouched forests, the overwhelming losses come from infrastructure,” adding that those forests are entirely off limits to native forestry.
Before adding that “the NSW Department is factually wrong to say that native forestry is responsible for land-clearing,” the industry is only allowed to harvest and is not clear. “This is a problem we continue to have with the department as their terminology is wrong.”
