E-Petition

Queensland residents draw to the attention of the house the ongoing destruction of live large old habitat trees in Deongwar State Forest and the immediate and long-term adverse impact it is having on Queensland’s protected hollow dependent species.

Recent inspection of Deongwar State Forest show that the eucalyptus forests have been highly modified and degraded by historical and current selective logging practices. There is a significant scarcity of live large old hollow bearing habitat trees which are essential for maintain natural densities of hollow dependent species. The forest has been logged to exhaustion. Its protected native species and biodiversity values continue to be adversely impacted.

The current practice of retaining young recruitment trees as a remedy for the destruction of larger older live habitat trees is not ecologically sound considering the long time period required for these young stems to develop large and very large hollows. Peer reviewed reports demonstrate that the availability of tree hollows is a limiting factor for the distribution and abundance of hollow dependant species such as the threatened yellow-bellied glider and endangered greater glider.

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