\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty stressful situation for koalas,\u201d said Dr Desley Whisson a Deakin University ecologist who specialises in koala management. \u201cThe blue gum plantations get cut down, and those koalas have to find somewhere to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each year thousands of koalas were likely displaced by plantation harvests, she said, based on their density in plantations and the scale of the logging.<\/p>\n
Koalas are listed as endangered in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, but in south-west Victoria and South Australia there are not enough trees to sustain the koala populations.<\/p>\n
The CSIRO estimates the national koala population is between 224,000 and 524,000.<\/p>\n
Whisson said koalas displaced from blue gum plantations were adding to already high densities in nearby trees and forests and contributing to the decline of nearby native vegetation, like manna gum. Overabundance, particularly combined with drought or fire, could ultimately lead to welfare issues \u2013 mass starvation and death \u2013 with land managers and wildlife carers left to deal with the consequences.<\/p>\n
One licensed koala shelter operator in the south-west, who asked not be named, said she helped up to 450 sick or injured animals a year. She said displaced animals were sometimes still up in trees that were felled and ended up with broken bones, or were orphaned babies left behind. Others were attacked by cows or dogs.<\/p>\n She said some koalas froze in the lights of logging trucks while crossing roads. \u201cThe amount of road kill is just horrendous,\u201d the carer said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been in a huge, big forest all their life. And then all of a sudden it\u2019s ripped down around them.\u201d<\/p>\n A 2023 study of reported wild koala deaths in south-east Queensland found vehicles were responsible for about half (1,431) of all fatalities.<\/p>\n The Victorian government released its koala strategy in May 2023. It detailed koala welfare problems associated with plantations but did not focus on long-term solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are currently no cost-effective management techniques available that would be acceptable to the community, or clear objectives for the management of koalas in blue gum plantations,\u201d the strategy said.<\/p>\n Victoria\u2019s environment department said it was working with animal welfare groups and experts to ensure the sustainability of koala populations and had invested $3.3m in koala management and research.<\/p>\n \u201cVictoria is fortunate to have a large koala population, but it does face threats such as disease, climate change and poor genetic diversity in some of the populations,\u201d a spokesperson told Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n Dr Kita Ashman, an ecologist for WWF Australia, said the plantations had changed the landscape profoundly since being established in the 1990s and 2000s.<\/p>\n She said the blue gum leaves provided a nutritious source of food that enabled the animals to reach much higher numbers than normal, but no one had properly dealt with the ramifications. The plantation industry was required to obtain a permit before it disturbed koalas, to engage koala spotters and to retain a minimum of nine trees around any animal observed during harvesting, but there was little onus on it to consider the fate of displaced animals, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re basically planting up this smorgasbord of plantations that koalas then move into, feed on, breed in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But Ashman said the answer should not be to get rid of plantations, as they were an important alternative to the native forest logging industry.<\/p>\n Whisson said it was a \u201cwicked problem\u201d that was likely to get worse. But she said there were solutions at the landscape scale that could improve the situation. They included the blue gum industry leaving a portion of each plantation for koalas to stay in or contributing to restoring permanent habitat. They could also provide support for wildlife carers and animal hospitals dealing with the fallout.<\/p>\n She said that in the longer term the industry could consider growing an alternative tree species that was less palatable to koalas than blue gum.<\/p>\n Dr Rolf Schlagloth, a koala ecologist from Central Queensland University, said providing somewhere for the koalas to go was a \u201csolvable problem\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real issue is the lack of connectivity [of nature] and failing to properly manage koala habitat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Schlagloth said all stakeholders needed to be involved in finding solutions and that state and federal governments needed to acknowledge mistakes \u2013 and it would take significant effort, and funding, to fix them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need open, honest discussion,\u201d he said, \u201cto make sure that our koalas \u2013 which are a flagship species \u2013 are saved.\u201d<\/p>\n