Evidence of a breeding colony of koalas in Gladstone State Forest has prompted calls for a deferral of proposed logging at Sunny Corner.
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The evidence of a mother and young was a distinctively small-sized scat found together with larger koala scats at the base of a 30 cm diameter tallowwood tree.
“As well as those scats, there were other koala scats found and numerous grey gums with koala claw marks,” Ashley Love from The Bellingen Environment Centre said.
The koala records were discovered on Friday during a visit to the forest with Greens forestry spokesperson in the Federal Parliament, Senator Janet Rice .
The discovery comes on top of the 59 koala records from the same locality recorded in the Forestry Corporation’s database between 1997 and 2013.
“The spread of records demonstrate the persistence of the colony in Gladstone State Forest,” Mr Love said.
Local conservationists have called for two compartments in Gladstone State Forest to be permanently protected.
They have also asked that the Office of Environment and Heritage be urgently engaged to conduct a survey to determine the area the colony requires to be protected for their survival.
