Koalas are being devastated by NSW's bushfires

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Watch the ABC news story on the koala bushfire crisis, 'Fears entire populations of koalas have been wiped out amid bushfires in NSW.'

On 20 June 2019 a parliamentary inquiry launched to investigate koala numbers and the loss of their habitat in NSW. Several hearings have taken place over the last six months where experts present what they know about koalas to a panel of politicians.

With the bushfire emergency devastating land across NSW, the parliamentary committee running the inquiry has held urgent hearings to find out from experts the extent of damage to the state’s koalas.

What the committee heard was devastating.

North East Forest Alliance president and ecologist Dailan Pugh said on the north coast up to a third of koala habitat had been lost and more than 2,000 individuals may have died.

Nature Conservation Council ecologist Mark Graham said we will probably never find the bodies of many more koalas.

Massive swathes of known koala habitat have been lost and there will be ongoing declines in koala populations from this point forward.

Here's what experts said during the hearing into the impact of bushfires:

"Current legislation allows rampant devastation and does not protect koalas," says Cheyne Flanagan, the Clinical Director of the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, fronting the NSW Koala Inquiry.

"What was once a national treasure is now a national tragedy." pic.twitter.com/5Kwe3SS5X8
— Nature NSW (@naturensw) December 9, 2019

"We need to put a moratorium on logging, just stop everything and get independent body to assess it. We have minimal habitat left, let's hang on to it. This is an emergency situation," says Cheyne Falangan, Clinical Director of the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital
— Nature NSW (@naturensw) December 9, 2019

"This is by far the worst fire crisis and it's growing rapidly. Just over the weekend in the upper Kalang Valley there have been fires where we know have important koala populations," NCC ecologist Mark Graham
— Nature NSW (@naturensw) December 8, 2019

"The entire Clouds Creek area, which have some of the best koala conectivity has been burnt out. There's barely a green leaf left for tens of thousands of KMs," says NCC ecologist Mark Graham for the NSW Koala Inquiry.
— Nature NSW (@naturensw) December 8, 2019

"Despair and neglect...Despair at the lack of understanding of conservation, and no ones in there to care for them [#koalas] months after the fires went through" says Dalian Pugh, Director of @forests4ever for the NSW Koala Inquiry
— Nature NSW (@naturensw) December 9, 2019

On climate change and the wildfires across NSW: "All the modeling predictions say we are going to see an increase in severe fire weather, heatwaves, huge rainfall deficits...what concerns me is what the future holds," says Dalian Pugh, Director for @forests4ever
— Nature NSW (@naturensw) December 9, 2019

"We have these megafires that are moving across the whole landscapes. The biggest difference is we’re not getting much landscape left unburnt, and no fauna refuges to protect themselves from such adverse conditions" presented Dalian Pugh from @forests4ever
— Nature NSW (@naturensw) December 9, 2019

Open letter to the NSW Government calling for a moratorium on logging

Read our open letter calling for a moratorium on logging here.

Koalas are being devastated by NSW's bushfires

Open letter to the NSW Government calling for a moratorium on logging

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Koalas are being devastated by NSW's bushfires

Open letter to the NSW Government calling for a moratorium on logging

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Let others know about this issue

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about us

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