Healesville Sanctuary puts Victoria’s threatened faunal emblems front and centre
Rachel Carbonell reported this story on Tuesday, August 20, 2013 12:42:00
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3829543.htm
ELEANOR HALL: The Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria has put some of the most threatened members of its captive breeding program on public display.
The sanctuary says it wants to raise public awareness about the plight of the animals that it's working to save from extinction. These include the Victorian state emblems: the Helmeted Honeyeater and the Leadbeater's Possum.
But while the sanctuary tries to raise the profile of these animals, ...
Environmentalists say federal laws fail to protect threatened species like Leadbeater’s possum
By Rachel Carbonell. Updated Tue 20 Aug 2013, 2:36pm AEST.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-20/federal-laws-fail-to-protect-threatened-species/4899322
Environmentalists say the plight of Victoria's Leadbeater's possum epitomises a national failure to protect endangered species.
The elusive endangered possum, which is the state's official animal emblem, is restricted to pockets of ash forests in the Central Highlands of north-east Victoria.
Australian National University ecologist David Lindenmayer has studied these ash forests for 30 years.
He says a combination of ...
A legal showdown over the fate of Victoria’s tiny Leadbeaters possum – radio news
Posted Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:44pm AEST
The battle lines are drawn again over the future of Victoria's tiny Leadbeater's possum.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-21/a-legal-showdown-over-the-fate-of-victorias-tiny/4772980?section=vic
Possum ‘needs more room’ to survive
Tom Arup. August 16, 2013.
Environment editor, The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/animals/possum-needs-more-room-to-survive-20130815-2rzka.html
Victoria's endangered faunal emblem, the Leadbeater's possum, has insufficient habitat to ensure the species' long-term survival, a leaked report commissioned by the state government has found.
The findings have potential implications for Victoria's timber industry, with the cabinet-in-confidence report suggesting tens of thousands more hectares of forest habitat is needed to give Leadbeater's the best chance of ...
Push for reserve to go under park’s wing
Tom Arup. August 8, 2013.
Environment editor, The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/push-for-reserve-to-go-under-parks-wing-20130807-2rgq2.html
A 3000-hectare State Emblems Conservation Area would be created on Melbourne's eastern fringe as part of efforts to help stave off extinction for two Victorian species under the recommendations of a major review.
An 18-month, government-commissioned study has called for the conservation area to be established, bringing together 13 existing reserves and 364 hectares of other land and inscribing it under the National Parks ...
New national park proposal to save the Leadbeater’s possum – radio broadcast
Updated Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:27pm AEST
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-13/new-national-park-proposal-to-save-the-leadbeaters/4884744?section=vic
The leading expert on Victoria's faunal emblem, the Leadbeater's possum, says the creature faces certain extinction if governments don't take urgent action. Professor David Lindenmayer of the ANU says one thing that's absolutely essential is the creation of a new national park, protected from logging, in the mountain forests east of Melbourne.
Mark Colvin
An amendment to the state’s logging laws is a threat to endangered species, say environmentalists
Oliver Milman
The Guardian, Thursday 27 June 2013 17.47 AEST
The Victorian government has amended the state's logging laws in a move conservationists fear will transfer control to the timber industry and could doom endangered species such as the Leadbeater's Possum.
The Sustainable Forests (Timber) Amendment Bill, which passed the lower house on Thursday, reduces the regulations binding VicForests, the state-backed forestry business.
The bill removes the second part of the two-stage process that VicForests has to go through in order to secure and log tracts of Victoria's ...
Loggers to help save possum
Tom Arup. June 14, 2013.
Environment editor, The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/loggers-to-help-save-possum-20130613-2o75y.html
Under increasing pressure to ensure the survival of Victoria's endangered faunal emblem, Leadbeater's possum, the Napthine government will create a taskforce headed by the timber industry and Zoos Victoria to consider how to save the species.
The move was immediately rejected by green groups, which refused to take part and criticised the creation of another committee when there was already a scientific recovery team ...
Is it too little, too late to save the Leadbeater’s possum?
Tom Arup. June 14, 2013.
Environment editor, The Age
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/is-it-too-little-too-late-to-save-the-leadbeaters-possum-20130614-2o7ro.html
Leadbeater's alone have a deep connection to Victorian history. Their loss would be a black mark on the soul of the state.
There are big problems to be solved to save Leadbeater's possum, Victoria's endangered faunal emblem. And it is good a new group formed by the Napthine Government has been charged with considering some of them.
The Leadbetter's possum.
But it ...
No Excuse for Habitat Destruction
www.sciencemag.org on May 15, 2013
IN THE PAST, MOST LOSSES OF SPECIES HAVE BEEN THE RESULT OF ignorance or an unfortunate catastrophic event (1, 2). We now see a government in a developed nation taking calculated actions to drive an endangered species to extinction.
To counter biodiversity loss, the most widely used strategy is to establish reserves. Hence, a system of protected areas was established in 2008 for Leadbeater’s possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri)— the faunal emblem of the Australian state of Victoria. This reserve system is based on a population ...