E-Petition

Queensland residents draws to the attention of the house the scarcity of large old habitat trees and very large tree hollows in Deongwar State Forest and the adverse impact selective logging is having on Queensland's protected species including the endangered central greater glider.

In 1998 the Habitat Tree Technical Advisory Group reported a scarcity of large hollow bearing trees noting that only 3 trees per hectare had very large hollows 18cm to 30cm in diameter. It recommended a minimum of six to 12 evenly distributed habitat trees per hectare to maintain natural densities of hollow dependant fauna. It acknowledged that 4 to 6 habitat trees per hectare would only maintain populations below natural densities. The current practice of retaining additional recruitment ‘habitat’ trees, (that may not have any tree hollows, or may not exhibit any habitat forming characteristics), where there are 6 or less live habitat trees per hectare is failing to provide the very large hollows to sustain Queensland’s protected hollow dependant species. These recruitment ‘habitat’ trees will not develop very large hollows for over 150 years.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to do all within its power to influence the Queensland Premier, the Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries, the Minister for the Environment and the Great Barrier Reef and the appointed Director-General of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to adopt the precautionary principle and end the logging of Deongwar State Forest and to transition it to the conservation estate at the earliest opportunity.