Become a citizen scientist and help us save greater gliders!

Across NSW, citizen scientists are heading into forests at night to protect the greater gliders and large hollow-bearing trees they depend on.

Armed with a spotlight, rain jacket, and a GPS, volunteers scan the canopy to record greater gliders, koalas, quolls, wombat burrows, and endangered frogs.

Since March 2023, citizen scientists have recorded 2077 greater glider dens in forests where Forestry Corporation have recorded just 97.

🎥 Check out the video and explainer below to understand how citizen scientists find greater gliders.

How it works

Under NSW logging rules, every confirmed Greater Glider den tree requires a 50-metre exclusion zone where logging cannot occur. By recording den trees,, citizen scientists are revealing where these protections must apply.

At the densities now recorded in many of these forests, these exclusion zones overlap to the extent significant areas cannot be lawfully logged. Recent outcomes: 

• In both Tallaganda and Badja State Forests, citizen scientists identified hundreds of greater gliders and their den trees, creating a mosaic of exclusion zones that ultimately led to the protection of over 30,000 hectares of forest.
• Forestry Corporation was also fined for illegal logging before ultimately announcing they would not return to either forest.
• Over the past three months, citizen scientists in Glenbog State Forest recorded:
  • 120 Greater Glider den trees (compared to Forest Corp’s 4) 
  • Hundreds of old, hollow-bearing trees that will likely become active den trees
  • More than 900 wombat burrows
  • Multiple threatened species including Gang-gang Cockatoos, Flame Robins and Yellow-bellied Gliders
  • See some amazing photos and maps here 
  • At the densities now recorded in Glenbog, these exclusion zones may overlap to the extent that logging cannot lawfully proceed if the rules are properly applied.
• In a small part of of Enfield State Forest (west of Port Macquarie) 280 dens, have been identified, compared to 2 found by the Forestry Corporation.

Much more needs to be done

Thousands of hectares of high density Greater Glider forests are still scheduled for logging. Forestry Corporation consistently fails to identify their habitat.

We know where the forests are:

• Tallaganda (now excluded), Tuggalo, Bulga, Enfield, Giro, Barrington Tops, Brother, Styx River, Glen Elgin, Gibraltar Range, Moogem, Badja, Cherry Tree, section of Dampier, Dingo, Flat Rock, Glenbog and Riamukka.
• This represents just 14 forests out of more than 500 State Forests across NSW (2–3% of the logging estate) 

We are asking people across NSW to write to their MPs and call for the immediate protection of these Glider Sanctuary forests while the government determines the future of the native forest logging industry.

State Forests are publicly owned forests. They should be used for the benefit of the public, not the companies that profit from their degradation. These forests and the wildlife they shelter are a legacy for future generations. They need to be protected,. Native forest logging must end! But while the government considers the future of the logging industry, critical habitat should not be destroyed.

Help us protect greater gliders and the forests they rely on. Sign up to be a citizen scientist today!