Queensland residents draw to the attention of the house the appalling impact historical inappropriate silvicultural practices, severe canopy burning bushfires, opportunistic post fire salvaging logging and more recent intensive 40+cm diameter at breast height (DBH) selective logging has had on the abundance and distribution of hollow obligate native species and the integrity of ecosystems in Deongwar State Forest.

This 4751 hectares of high conservation value climate change refugia now has such a paucity of large over aged senescing trees, standing dead stags and associated large (15+cm) to very large (30+cm) tree hollows that on all accounts our native hollow obligate large gliding marsupials, large forest owls and large parrots are functionally extinct with no prospect of recovery given the long time frames required for tree hollow formation.

Your petitioners call on the State to acknowledge the truth and validity of 25 years of peer reviewed research that demonstrates the adverse impact intensive 40+cm DBH selective logging and forest disturbance has on the full cohort of hollow dependant species and the fact that the State has no data to demonstrate that these species are present in sufficient numbers to maintain viable genetically diverse populations going forward. As such we call on the State not to issue any native timber licences within Deongwar State Forest.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to bring this to the attention of Hon Tony Perrett MP the Minister for the Department of Primary Industries and Hon Andrew Powell the Minister for the Environment and Tourism.