Critically Endangered Birds Swift Parrots Lose Habitat as Tasmania Logs Native Gum Trees

In Tasmania, native gum trees that serve as the habitat for critically endangered swift parrots are being cut down.

Tasmania Logs Native Gum Trees

Remote wilderness is captured by Tasmanian wildlife photographer Rob Blakers. He photographed endangered swift parrots last summer.

Due to a sense of necessity when the Tasmanian government's logging agency, Sustainable Timber Tasmania, started falling trees in the region as part of its native forest logging program, he now faces arrest for opposing logging in the same area.

He claimed that by logging in an area where there were more than eight trees per hectare with a trunk diameter of at least 70 cm, the timber agency had violated its own regulations.

He also said that 35 meters away from the nesting tree he photographed, trees had been cut down when a buffer of at least 50m is required per the agency's regulations.

The 65-year-old Blakers has not been detained since joining the demonstrations against the Gordon-below-Franklin dam in Tasmania's wilderness in December 1982.

Critically Endangered Birds Swift Parrots in Migrations

At the time of the logging, there were no swift parrots in the region. This is because the species spends the winters in New South Wales and Victoria and the summers nesting in various Tasmanian woods depending on where its primary food sources, blue and black gums, are in bloom.

However, according to biologists, if the species is to survive, it cannot afford to lose any more of its Tasmanian summer habitat.

According to a CSIRO publication from 2021, there were only about 750 swift parrots left, compared to 2,000 a decade earlier.

According to experts, forestry is the biggest threat to the species survival, and if nothing is done to increase its protection, it might go extinct in 10 years.

Habitat Loss

According to Blakers, the southeast corner of the coupe, which had been teeming with swift parrots all summer, has been heavily logged. Almost all of the enormous trees in this area have been cut down. .

The few older trees that are still standing are isolated and susceptible to wind damage.

Suzette Weeding, the Sustainable Timber Tasmania general manager, stated that the area's logging was being done in keeping with a certified forest practices plan.

She claimed that included making arrangements to keep particular Brooker's gum patches, which have been recognized as habitats for swift parrot foraging.

Also Read: 200 Sandwich Terns, Black-Headed Seagulls Found Dead in Scotland Forest Reserve, Avian Flu Tests Underway 

Weeding noted that the approved forest practices plan specifies that the harvest area has been restricted to areas near known or confirmed swift parrot nesting trees 

The swift parrot habitat in the region will continue to be protected thanks to these operational provisions, The Guardian reported.

From the current situation, Tasmania's logging sector is free from the national environmental regulations that would otherwise safeguard the Swift Parrot's vital breeding and foraging habitat.

Swift Parrots are in danger of going extinct due to the increased logging of native forests, which has destroyed thousands of hectares in recent decades.

Once the Swift Parrots have left these forests for their overwintering area in southeast Australia, logging that had been put on hold for the summer in those forests usually starts up again.

Systematic conversion of old, hollow-bearing trees' vital breeding and foraging grounds into tree farms with persistently young saplings that are harmful to nesting is occurring, claimed Wild Island Tasmania.

Related Article: Protected Birds Avocets Successfully Hatch in Seaton Wetlands While Officials Maintain Water Levels - UK