DEVASTATING describes the koala road toll in Port Stephens last weekend with four deaths and another koala injured.

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The biggest threats to our koala population are loss, modification and threat to habitat, disease, vehicle strike, prescribed burns and bushfires, dogs, heat stress, dehydration and climate change.

Populations of koalas in the wild have dropped be 26 percent in the last 15-21 years and will continue to do so unless we intervene.

Koalas sit on the vulnerable to extinction list with NSW, ACT and Queensland holding a reported population of 330,000 koalas in 2012 with 36,000 in NSW.

Kate Washington Port Stephens MP told News Of The Area that we have an obligation to act now to ensure that our children and our children’s children will still be able to see koalas living in the wild in Port Stephens.

“On behalf of the people of Port Stephens, I’ve been urging the NSW Government to buy back the part of the Mambo Wetlands which it sold last year.”

“We just can’t afford to see that site developed, the government’s strategy is failing the Port Stephens Koala population and it needs to change now,” she said.

Simone Aurino a carer for Port Stephens Koalas told News Of The Area that it is really important that anyone who is involved in a koala road accident stops and contacts the team allowing early intervention, which can make all the difference for the koalas survival.

“The volunteers triage the injured koalas under the guidance of Veterinarian, Don Hudson of Noah’s Ark Veterinary Surgery who donate their service and assist injured koalas,” she said.

The Port Stephens koala population is fragmented, isolated causing intense ongoing pressure, we can help by slowing down at dawn and dusk.

Report koala injuries to 0418 628 483.

By Marian SAMPSON