THE Nature Conservation Council of NSW says the listing of yellow-bellied gliders in south-east Australia as vulnerable to extinction is another reason to end native forest logging in NSW.

News Of The Area has previously reported on the discovery of gliders near the Kalang headwaters and flagged a change in classification.

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Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley has listed the iconic species as vulnerable on the advice of the Federal Threatened Species Scientific Committee, coming soon after the Minister increased the threatened status of the koalas in NSW and Queensland from ‘vulnerable’ to ‘endangered’.

Chris Gambian, Chief Executive of the Nature Conservation Council, said, “Thanks to decades of unsustainable logging and land clearing, we have pushed two of our most adorable forests species to the brink of extinction.

“If we do not end native forest logging and land clearing now, we will lose these species forever.”

The Committee found the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires, which destroyed more than five million hectares of forests, were a key factor that had increased risks to both species, along with land clearing, habitat fragmentation, and climate change.

“The NSW Government is still logging forests that were smashed by the Black Summer bushfires or forests that have become precious refuges for koalas and gliders that fled the flames,” Mr Gambian said.

“The native forest division of the NSW Government’s logging company, Forestry Corporation, lost $20 million last financial year.

“Effectively, taxpayers are subsidising the extinction of our koalas and gliders.

“It’s morally reprehensible,” he continued.

Local conservationist Mark Graham, has some yellow-bellied gliders on his property at Darkwood.

“They’re a large gliding possum that eats nectar and pollen and licks sap from eucalypts and occasionally eat insects,” he said.

Mr Graham said the gliders live in small family groups in forests with lots of hollows and said, “Their call sounds like Donald Duck being strangled.”

He said that they have disappeared locally from a number of sites, but said, “Wherever they live they need to be protected.”

By Andrew VIVIAN