Undaunted by the NSW government's recent doubling down on policies that fail to protect species threatened by industrial logging of native forests, locals in the area of Clouds Creek State Forest on the western Dorrigo Plateau in North East NSW have stepped up to save precious public forest habitats.  In a move to protect an important population of endangered Southern Greater Gliders, they have declared Clouds Creek State Forest to be a Greater Glider Sanctuary.  Astonished at the removal of the requirement to survey at night before logging commences, local group the Blicks River Guardians in their own nocturnal surveys detected 22 individual greater gliders and confirmed several den trees of this unique marsupial. 

Having miraculously survived when a megafire swept through the area during Black Summer, this critical refugium now risks being decimated in Forest Corp NSW’s rush to extract timber before the area is protected in the Great Koala National Park.  In declaring the Greater Glider sanctuary the local community are joined by elders of the Gumbaynggirr nation in calling for an immediate cessation of works to allow adequate cultural and fauna surveys to be performed.  In the meantime they are maintaining a constant forest vigil to safeguard these critical Gondwanan forests, home to unique wildlife, ancient cultural significance, and a critical water catchment for the Coffs Coast and Grafton region.