Dear Threatened Species Enquiries
Threatened Species Section
3rd floor, 134 Macquarie Street
(GPO Box 44 Hobart 7001)
HOBART TAS 7000
Phone: 03 6233 8759
Fax: 03 6233 3477
Email: [email protected]
Dear Threatened Species Enquiries
My name is Felicity Holmes and I contacted Forestry Tasmania in May 2012 to request information about management prescriptions in regard to the Tasmanian devil, in particular maternal den protection in logging coupes (see attachment: Ken Jeffreys). I was not satisfied by the responses, and so I took a look at DPIPWE’s Threatened Species website:
http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/ThemeNodes/RLIG-53KUPV?open
…to see if I could find the Tasmanian Devil Recovery Plan, and any RFA prescriptions in place to prevent devil den loss due to land use changes, in particular logging. I was unimpressed to discover that there was no formal Recovery Plan for Tasmanian Devils (the 2010 Draft Recovery Plan is not endorsed by Federal Government, nor is it binding in its draft form). Nor could I find any management prescriptions for protecting devil dens or key devil breeding habitat.
In May 2006 the Tasmanian devil was listed as a vulnerable species under the Commonwealth EPBC Act and a brochure was put out in July 2006 (see attached). That’s 6 years ago!
The federal government’s webpage discussing Tasmanian devils:
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=299
…has a link to the Recovery Plan – but the link does not work.
All of the State and National approved recovery plans are listed on the following website: http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/LJEM-6H644R?open
…and I expected that such a globally recognised endangered species would have an approved Recovery Plan considering the generous funding available and the dedicated Save the Tasmanian Devil Program staff. I was wrong.
Sets a poor example, don’t you think?
Ken Jeffreys from Forestry Tasmania stated in his email to me that Forestry Tasmania consults the NVA for devil den locations in logging coupes. This sounds like a decent practice in principle – but the fact is that there are very few dens recorded in the NVA at this time – a total of 30 dens only!
Ken Jeffreys stated:
“With regards to the conservation management of Tasmanian devils at the coupe level, any known maternal den is preserved and this is prescribed in the Forest Practices Plan. We source all our information of known threatened species records in Tasmania, including devil den sites, from the Natural Values Atlas (NVA). Currently, there are 30 devil den sites listed in the NVA.”
WOW! 30 recorded devil dens in the NVA! A total of 30 devil dens are protected and won’t be bulldozed in a logging coupe if they happen to be situated in one! A single devil will utilise at least 5 dens in their lifetime – which means we have a sum total of 6 devils whose homes are protected from logging leaving the remaining 99.99% of devil dens totally unprotected! This is simply appalling!
The devil was listed as a RFA priority species in 2007 (see attached – List of RFA priority species) – see the following website:
http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/LJEM-7VH9NV?open
…yet in their RFA Priority Species Project Documents which can be found at:
http://www.fpa.tas.gov.au/homepage/search?queries_name_query=RFA+priority+species&search_page_59176_submit_button=Submit
the only references I could find pertaining to Tasmanian devils are as follows:
“Developing a framework for the conservation of habitat of RFA priority species – doc 5” mentions devils once:
Subsequent ranking will be done by considering the conservation status of the species (i.e. not threatened, rare, vulnerable, endangered) and the ‘threat by forestry practices’. For example, the Tasmanian devil is endangered but the threat of forestry alone increasing the conservation status of this species is low. Whereas the wedge-tailed eagle is endangered and the threat of forest practices on its conservation status is high.
And “Developing a framework for the conservation of habitat of RFA priority species – doc 1″ mentions devils only once also:
Pests and diseases
In many areas pests and diseases are a major impact on the health of the forest as a whole (e.g. Phytophthora) or on particular species (e.g. devil facial tumour disease).
In May 2006 the Tasmanian devil was listed as a vulnerable species under the Commonwealth EPBC Act and a brochure was put out in July 2006 (see attached brochure). That’s 6 years ago! This brochure also states:
How does this decision affect forestry operations?
Under section 38 of the EPBC Act, forestry operations undertaken in accordance with RFAs are exempt from Part 3 of the EPBC Act, in this case the provisions relating to listed threatened species. However, Forestry Tasmania is required to have operational procedures in place to protect and manage listed threatened species on forestry managed land as part of the Tasmanian RFA.
I have asked to look at these operational procedures on several occasions – yet none seem to exist! And if procedures do not exist then nobody has to follow them – which means that Tasmanian devils remain threatened by forestry operations – and I’d be guessing that if FT doesn’t have to offer devil dens reasonable protection – then neither would mining and mining exploration, or devil dens on private land for that matter.
Ken Jeffreys from Forestry Tasmania also stated in his email (attached):
“Thank you for your recent email regarding your concerns of the protection of devil dens in logging coupes. Under our 2008 Sustainability Charter, we aim to ‘Maintain viable populations of all existing animal and plant species and communities found in state forests’, and that includes threatened and non threatened biota:
Applying management prescriptions for biodiversity conservation delivered under the Forest Practices System, which includes threatened species management prescriptions that have been developed with species experts and endorsed by the Tasmanian Scientific Advisory Committee.”
Yet I’ve already ascertained that threatened species management prescriptions for Tasmanian devils do not formally exist, so nobody has to follow any prescriptions! The devil was listed as a RFA priority species in 2007 – and 5 years down the track and 5 years further spread of DFTD their dens remain unprotected.
When I questioned Ken Jeffries about the whereabouts of said prescriptions, he stated: “These prescriptions currently are in draft form and in an endorsement process.”
…sounds like the perfect excuse for FT not to have to implement reasonable devil protection – by leaving everything in its draft form so nothing has to be done about it! Please quit stalling the process!
Download:
