Furphy: The presence of endangered species in a forest shows that the forest manager is achieving conservation goals.

Fact: To prevent extinctions we need to stop logging endangered species habitat.

By definition, an endangered species has undergone a severe decline in numbers, has a restricted geographic distribution, and is at high risk of extinction (DCEEW 2025). Detecting an endangered species in a forest indicates its presence, but rigorous monitoring is needed to understand how its numbers are changing there (Lindenmayer 2024 pp.40-41).

Contemporary logging is impacting on 150 species listed by the Australian government as threatened in NSW, of which 86 are vulnerable, 51 endangered and 13 critically endangered (Ward et al. 2024b). Threatened species include the endangered koala; hollow-dependent species such as the endangered southern greater glider, yellow-bellied glider, possums, quolls, bats, owls and parrots; amphibians; and many plants.

The NSW State of the Environment Report states that “the most common threats [to threatened species, communities and populations in NSW] are habitat loss due to the clearing and degradation of native vegetation and the spread of invasive pests and weeds. The capacity of species to adapt to these pressures is further constrained by climate change./ Altered fire regimes impact the ability of plant species and communities to regenerate or repropagate and extreme wildfires can decimate local animal populations” (State of NSW & NSW EPA 2021 pp.67).

In their analysis of the impacts of logging on threatened species, Ward and colleagues say “almost all the forest-dependent species we assessed have suffered terribly from land clearing and fires over the past two centuries. They now survive in small parts of their natural range. Logging this remaining habitat is forcing many of these species into an extinction vortex” (Ward et al. 2024a).

One example of this is logging of the habitat of southern greater gliders in state forests up and down the NSW coast. Work by citizen scientists and ecologists has shown sustained failures by Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) to protect greater glider den trees (Pepper & John 2024 pp.17, 27; Wardell-Johnson & Robinson 2025). In Tallaganda State Forest, for example, FCNSW failed to properly protect at least 1,215 den trees across a logged area of 442 hectares in 2023 (Ashman et al. 2023).

The Australian Government has committed to no new extinctions (DCCEEW 2022). To prevent extinctions we need to stop logging the habitat of endangered species.

Further reading

State of NSW & NSW EPA 2021). NSW state of the environment 2021. Tabled report. Available at: https://www.soe.epa.nsw.gov.au.

Ward, M., Lindenmayer, D. and Watson, J. (2024). ‘More than half of NSW’s forests and woodlands are gone as ongoing logging increases extinction risks, study shows’, The Conversation, 5 August. Available at: https://theconversation.com.