Greater glider spotting is a meditative thing, says Bulga local Steve Fredericks.
保加利亚当地人史蒂夫·弗雷德里克斯 (Steve Fredericks) 表示,发现更多滑翔机是一件值得深思的事情。
“A bad night of glider spotting is better than a good night of television.
“一个糟糕的滑翔机观测之夜比一个美好的电视之夜要好。
“The excitement on people’s faces when they see one for the first time – it’s just priceless.”
“人们第一次看到它时脸上的兴奋——这是无价的。”
It’s a Sunday in July, just after sunset. We’re sitting in the Bulga state forest, inland from Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid-north coast, waiting for darkness to fall.
这是七月的一个周日,日落之后。我们坐在新南威尔士州中北部海岸麦夸里港内陆的布尔加州立森林里,等待夜幕降临。
Six of us, including the independent MP for Mackellar, Sophie Scamps, are huddled, focused on a single tree.
我们六个人,包括麦凯拉的独立议员索菲·斯坎普斯,挤在一起,专注于一棵树。
About 200m away, the former federal Treasury secretary Ken Henry and a small group of Bulga residents are monitoring another patch.
大约 200m 之外,前联邦财政部长肯·亨利 (Ken Henry) 和一小群保加利亚居民正在监视另一块土地。
Stationed further up a hill, towards the rough road that leads to the village of Elands, is Susie Russell, the vice-president of the North Coast Environment Council.
北海岸环境委员会副主席苏西·拉塞尔(Susie Russell)驻扎在山上更远的地方,朝着通往埃兰兹村的崎岖道路。
The groups talk over CB radios. Apart from the flashing of spotlights, the only activity is what Fredericks calls the meditative wait for endangered greater gliders to emerge from their dens in the hollows of tall eucalypts.
各小组通过民用无线电进行交谈。除了闪烁的聚光灯之外,唯一的活动就是弗雷德里克斯所说的冥想式等待,等待濒临灭绝的大型滑翔机从高大桉树洞中的巢穴中出现。
This environmental neighbourhood watch has become routine in the forest of the Bulga plateau.
这种环境邻里监视已成为布尔加高原森林中的例行公事。
It is how members of the group hope they might save the area from logging by the state-owned NSW Forestry Corporation, which is scheduled to recommence as soon as the first week of August.
该组织的成员希望通过这种方式来拯救该地区,使其免受国有新南威尔士州林业公司的砍伐,该公司计划最早在八月的第一周重新开始砍伐。
Citizen scientists have spent many nights over the past year spotlighting in parts of the forest scheduled for logging. They register every greater glider den tree they observe on the state government’s biodiversity database, BioNet.
在过去的一年里,公民科学家花了很多个夜晚来关注计划砍伐的森林部分。他们在州政府的生物多样性数据库 BioNet 上登记了他们观察到的每一棵更大的滑翔机巢穴树。
Logging is not permitted within 50 metres of known greater glider den trees.
已知较大滑翔机巢穴树木 50 米范围内不允许伐木。
“Every 50m exclusion zone that we save, that’s a win,” Fredericks says.
“我们每节省 50m 禁区,就是一次胜利,”Fredericks 说。
‘I cannot for the life of me see the sense’
“我一生都看不到其中的意义”
In the black summer of 2019-20, fires approached the forest from the south, north and west.
2019-20年的黑色夏季,大火从南部、北部和西部逼近森林。
But the area was saved, partly thanks to volunteer firefighters and Forestry Corporation workers.
但该地区得救了,部分归功于志愿消防员和林业公司的工作人员。
Since that time, this unburnt forest – with its habitat for threatened species including the koala and glossy-black cockatoo, and critically endangered plants such as the rainforest tree Rhodamnia rubescens – has been a target for logging.
从那时起,这片未燃尽的森林——栖息着考拉和亮黑凤头鹦鹉等受威胁物种,以及雨林树红丹尼亚等极度濒危植物——一直是伐木的目标。
It is one of many across the NSW public forest estate where logging has either resumed or is scheduled, including in areas of the proposed great koala national park farther north.
它是新南威尔士州公共森林地区众多已恢复或计划伐木的地区之一,其中包括更北边拟建的大考拉国家公园的地区。
Unlike Victoria and Western Australia, which have ended native forestry operations, the Minns government has not.
与维多利亚州和西澳大利亚州已经结束本地林业运营不同,明斯州政府没有这样做。
Late last year it suspended logging in high value koala habitat “hubs” in the proposed great koala national park. But that stopped forestry operations in only 5% of the 176,000 hectares the government will assess for potential protection within the promised park.
去年年底,政府暂停了在拟建的大考拉国家公园内高价值考拉栖息地“中心”的伐木活动。但政府将在承诺的公园内评估潜在保护的 176,000 公顷土地中,只有 5% 的林业作业停止了。
And it gave no protection to places such as Bulga state forest that fall outside the proposed park’s boundaries.
它也没有对保加利亚国家森林等位于拟建公园边界之外的地方提供保护。
Before the 2023 state election, campaigners staged protests in areas including Yarratt state forest near Taree and Doubleduke state forest, north of Yamba.
在 2023 年州选举之前,活动人士在塔里附近的亚拉特州立森林和扬巴北部的双杜克州立森林等地区举行了抗议活动。
Protests in Bulga, including a forest camp and tree sits, resulted in the Forestry Corporation suspending logging in late 2022.
保加利亚的抗议活动(包括设立森林营地和树木栖息地)导致林业公司于 2022 年底暂停伐木。
Now the corporation plans to return, and Henry is bewildered.
现在公司计划回归,亨利感到困惑。
“I cannot for the life of me see the sense in it,” he says.
“我一生都看不到其中的意义,”他说。
He notes that the hardwood division of the government-owned forestry agency – which uses native timber – makes a loss.
他指出,政府拥有的林业机构的硬木部门(使用本地木材)出现了亏损。
In 2022-23 it lost $15m. In its half-yearly report for 2023-24, the division posted a loss of $10.2m.
2022-23 年,它损失了 1500 万美元。在 2023-24 年半年报中,该部门亏损 1020 万美元。
“Why do they do it?” Henry asks. “If you’re going to log this you’d want to have something pretty amazing to show for it in 100 years’ time.
“他们为什么这么做?”亨利问道。 “如果你要记录这个,你会希望在 100 年后能看到一些非常令人惊奇的东西。
“And we know there’ll be nothing to show for it except that this would be buggered. It would be absolutely buggered.”
“而且我们知道,除了会被搞砸之外,不会有什么可展示的。这绝对会被搞砸。”
Henry and his wife, Naomi, own a property in nearby Comboyne. An economist on a spotlighting expedition may seem unusual but Henry has a background in wildlife care and strong family connections to the area.
亨利和他的妻子娜奥米在附近的科博因拥有一处房产。作为一位参加备受关注的探险的经济学家,亨利似乎很不寻常,但他拥有野生动物保护方面的背景,并且与该地区有着密切的家庭关系。
He went to school in Taree and recalls his father, who worked for local sawmills and was involved in logging around Elands, describing the native forestry industry as unsustainable.
他在塔里上学,回忆起他的父亲,他的父亲在当地锯木厂工作,并参与了埃兰兹周围的伐木活动,他形容当地的林业产业是不可持续的。
In 2023, Henry led a review of NSW’s environmental protection laws, which warned half of the threatened plants and animals in the state were on course to become extinct within 100 years.
2023 年,亨利领导了对新南威尔士州环境保护法的审查,该法警告该州一半受威胁的动植物将在 100 年内灭绝。
He identified that native forest logging was damaging ecosystems and species and called for legislation related to biodiversity to be given primacy over other land management laws, including those that govern logging.
他指出,原生森林采伐正在破坏生态系统和物种,并呼吁将与生物多样性相关的立法置于其他土地管理法律(包括管理伐木的法律)之上。
The Minns government delivered its response to that report on Wednesday with an admission that the state’s biodiversity was in “crisis”. Henry said this week the government’s response demonstrated a “serious attempt” to tackle the problem, but it stopped short of making biodiversity the top priority in government policy and legislation.
明斯州政府周三对该报告作出回应,承认该州的生物多样性处于“危机”。亨利本周表示,政府的回应表明了解决这一问题的“认真尝试”,但并未将生物多样性作为政府政策和立法的首要任务。
Earlier in the afternoon, Henry stops at a small camp forest campaigners have set up on the road into the forest.
下午早些时候,亨利在森林活动人士在进入森林的道路上搭建的一个小营地停下来。
“Surely the sensible use of a place like this is not to chop it down,” he says.
“当然,对这样一个地方的合理利用不是砍伐它,”他说。
“If you leave it alone for a couple of hundred years, it could be fantastic.”
“如果你把它搁置几百年,那可能会很棒。”
‘The definition of insanity’
“精神错乱的定义”
The first sign of a greater glider is its eyes. The NSW Greens upper house MP Sue Higginson calls them “sparkling stars”, tiny pieces of glistening magic against the night sky.
大型滑翔机的第一个标志是它的眼睛。新南威尔士州绿党上议院议员苏·希金森称它们为“闪闪发光的星星”,是夜空中闪闪发光的魔法小碎片。
The first sighting for the evening is down the hill from the tree Fredericks has been monitoring. By the time we get there, it has scurried high to reach its meal of eucalyptus leaves. We see its eyes under the glow of the spotlight then catch a flash of the white fur on its chest and belly.
晚上的第一次目击是从弗雷德里克斯一直在监视的那棵树的山下看到的。当我们到达那里时,它已经飞得很高,去吃桉树叶了。我们在聚光灯的照射下看到它的眼睛,然后看到它胸部和腹部的白色皮毛。
Mitra Ellis, a Bulga local and Save Bulga Forest member, calls greater gliders the “rock stars” of the forest.
保加利亚当地人、拯救布尔加森林成员米特拉·埃利斯 (Mitra Ellis) 将大型滑翔机称为森林中的“摇滚明星”。
“They can glide for 100m and do a 90-degree turn,” he says.
“它们可以滑翔 100m 并进行 90 度转弯,”他说。
In the two forest compartments citizen scientists have monitored at Bulga over the past year, Ellis says he has observed single gliders emerging from dens in small trees, other trees that he describes as “den hotels”, and “ridiculously cute” pairs of gliders cuddling up to each other.
埃利斯说,在过去一年中,公民科学家在保加利亚监测的两个森林分区中,他观察到单只滑翔机从小树上的巢穴中出现,其他树木被他称为“巢穴酒店”,还有“可爱得可笑”的成对滑翔机相互依偎在一起。彼此之间。
Fredericks jumps in: “They’re the cutest animal in the country and most people don’t know they exist.”
弗雷德里克斯插话道:“它们是这个国家最可爱的动物,但大多数人不知道它们的存在。”
Since the black summer fires, efforts to protect the greater glider (Petauroides volans), the largest gliding possum in eastern Australia, have become more urgent.
自黑色夏季大火以来,保护澳大利亚东部最大的滑翔负鼠——大滑翔机( Petauroides volans)的努力变得更加紧迫。
Its population is estimated to have halved in little more than 20 years, and it was listed under national environmental laws as endangered in 2022.
据估计,它的数量在不到 20 年的时间里减少了一半,并于 2022 年被国家环境法列为濒危物种。
Greater gliders rely on older trees with hollows for their habitat. To avoid predation by owls, a single glider may use up to 20 trees in a small area.
更大的滑翔机依靠有空洞的老树作为栖息地。为了避免猫头鹰的捕食,一架滑翔机可能会在一个小区域内使用多达 20 棵树。
The greater glider is one of 174 mammal, bird, reptile and frog species in northern NSW that need hollow trees in order to survive.
大袋鼯是新南威尔士州北部 174 种需要空心树才能生存的哺乳动物、鸟类、爬行动物和青蛙物种之一。
“No tree hollows – no owls, no gliders, no black cockatoos, no bats,” Russell says.
“没有树洞——没有猫头鹰、没有滑翔机、没有黑凤头鹦鹉、没有蝙蝠,”拉塞尔说。
“A hollow can take 150 to 200 years to form.”
“一个空洞可能需要 150 到 200 年才能形成。”
Russell has been campaigning for the forests since moving to the Bulga plateau in the 1990s. She compares the logging of habitat to removing essential services from a suburban neighbourhood.
自 20 世纪 90 年代搬到保加利亚高原以来,拉塞尔一直致力于保护森林。她将栖息地砍伐与郊区基本服务的取消进行了比较。
“If someone took out your shop, your business, your petrol station – you’d be stuffed,” she says.
“如果有人拿走了你的商店、你的生意、你的加油站——你就会吃饱,”她说。
Under Australia’s environmental laws, logging covered by a regional forest agreement (RFA) is exempt from requiring an assessment for its impact on national listed threatened species such as the koala.
根据澳大利亚的环境法,区域森林协议(RFA)涵盖的伐木活动无需评估其对国家列出的受威胁物种(例如考拉)的影响。
Scamps has been leading a push, joined by several former environment ministers, for native forest logging to be phased out in all states and for governments to provide a support package for affected workers.
斯坎普斯与几位前环境部长一起,一直在带头推动所有州逐步停止原生森林采伐,并要求政府为受影响的工人提供一揽子支持计划。
She has also proposed an amendment to the federal government’s legislation for a proposed new environment protection agency that would end the exemption for RFAs.
她还提议对联邦政府立法进行修正案,提议设立一个新的环境保护机构,以终止 RFA 的豁免。
On the road from Ellenborough earlier on Sunday, Scamps says there is a “big job ahead of us – I think every one of us”.
周日早些时候,在从埃伦伯勒出发的路上,斯坎普斯表示“我们面前有一项艰巨的任务——我认为我们每个人”。
“Because we’re concerned about what we’re leaving for future generations.”
“因为我们关心我们为子孙后代留下什么。”
She describes the plans for logging in the Bulga forest as “the definition of insanity”.
她将布尔加森林的伐木计划描述为“疯狂的定义”。
“Where we went is very beautiful forest with a lot of threatened species. And there are quite obviously greater gliders living there.”
“我们去的地方是非常美丽的森林,有很多濒危物种。显然那里生活着更大的滑翔机。”
The Forestry Corporation says harvesting takes just 1-2% of state forests each year, about 0.2% of the entire public forest estate, and claims housing and infrastructure projects need “ongoing sustainable forestry in regrowth forests”.
林业公司表示,每年仅采伐国有森林的 1-2%,约占整个公共森林地产的 0.2%,并声称住房和基础设施项目需要“在再生森林中持续开展可持续林业”。
“All of Forestry Corporation of NSW’s timber harvesting operations comply and align with strict regulatory environmental conditions, with only some trees harvested, large areas permanently protected, and the entire area regrown,” a spokesperson said.
“新南威尔士州林业公司的所有木材采伐作业均遵守并符合严格的监管环境条件,仅采伐了部分树木,大面积永久受到保护,整个地区都重新生长,”一位发言人表示。
They said that includes complying with requirements for the protection of greater glider den trees under the NSW coastal forestry agreement.
他们说,这包括遵守新南威尔士州沿海林业协议中保护大滑翔机巢穴树木的要求。
“Bulga state forest contains areas set aside for conservation, native forest available for timber production, and timber plantations,” they said.
“保加利亚国家森林包含预留的保护区、可用于木材生产的原生森林以及木材种植园,”他们说。
“Timber harvesting is proposed for what are classified as compartments 41 and 43, that equate to just 0.7% of Bulga state forest.
“建议对 41 号和 43 号区域进行木材采伐,这些区域仅相当于保加利亚国家森林的 0.7%。
“These locations have been harvested and regrown many times before, with forestry operations taking place in every decade from the 1950s to the 1990s.”
“这些地点以前曾多次被砍伐和重新种植,从 20 世纪 50 年代到 1990 年代,每十年都会进行一次林业作业。”
‘Like doing the census’ “就像进行人口普查一样”
Forest campaigners say in the absence of action on native forest logging by the state or federal government, registering known greater glider den trees is one of the few levers they have to pull.
森林活动人士表示,在州或联邦政府没有对原生森林采伐采取行动的情况下,登记已知的大型滑翔机巢穴树木是他们必须采取的少数手段之一。
These activities have gained prominence since last year after a dead greater glider was found near a logging operation in Tallaganda state forest on the south coast, and it emerged that forestry surveys for the nocturnal glider’s den trees had occurred during the day.
自去年以来,在南海岸塔拉甘达州立森林的一个伐木场附近发现了一只死亡的大型滑翔机尸体,并且对夜间滑翔机巢穴树木的林业调查是在白天进行的,这些活动自去年以来就受到了重视。
Back at the tree that has the lowest known den in these two compartments of the forest, Fredericks admits surveying for gliders is imperfect.
回到森林这两个区域中已知巢穴最低的那棵树,弗雷德里克斯承认对滑翔机的测量并不完美。
You have to be positioned at the right tree, at the right time, to spot a glider emerging or returning.
您必须在正确的时间位于正确的树上,才能发现滑翔机出现或返回。
“It’s like doing the census and only counting the people standing at the doorway to their house,” he says.
“这就像进行人口普查,只计算站在自家门口的人数,”他说。
Because gliders make use of multiple dens, there is no guarantee you will have success on any given night.
由于滑翔机使用多个巢穴,因此无法保证您在任何特定的夜晚都能取得成功。
We wait about two hours, but on this night the forest works in our favour.
我们等了大约两个小时,但今晚森林对我们有利。
We hear the soft sound of claws against the inside of the tree first, then the eyes appear and we get a glimpse of a tiny face with white trimmed ears and nose watching from above.
我们首先听到爪子敲击树内部的轻柔声音,然后眼睛出现,我们瞥见一张小脸,耳朵和鼻子都修剪成白色,从上面观察。