Koala Action Day
Valla Markets, Feb 6
Uncle Micklo Jarrett gave a spirited Welcome to Country, chatted with Councillor Susan Jenvey and taught us a Gumbaynggirr song. He is passionate that, ‘Everything on the earth is sacred, a leaf that falls from a tree. Everything’s got a story.’
Bear, the Koala sniffer dog, found hidden koala scats demonstrating a most effective way of locating these animals
Koalas will be driven to extinction before 2050 in NSW, major inquiry finds. State parliamentary investigation finds biggest threat to the species’ survival is habitat loss – but logging and clearing has continued.[1]
Koala populations in NSW are in precipitous decline. Outside exclusion zones and plantations there are 12,253 ha of Koala Hubs identified on State Forests, which means that over the past 4 years 21% of the loggable area of Koala Hubs within native forests on State Forests have been logged.[2]
I was staffing the information stand at the Market, with a register for those interested in a community planting day arranged through Council and LandCare and a register for landowners with appropriate properties interested in receiving free koala feed trees, probably in a few months’ time.
There was plenty of information available, from Landcare and others. There were readings from winners of the ‘I’m not a Bear’ writing competition (poetry and prose, children and adults) that I helped judge and a ceremonial planting of three food trees in the reserve.
[1] Lisa Cox, The Guardian, 30 Jun 2020.
[2] https://www.nefa.org.au/koalas
