Bulldozing the Baw Baw Frog to extinction
The Bracks government is set to usher one of Victoria’s most globally significant and threatened species into extinction. The Baw Baw frog is set to be carefully experimented upon with D4s!
With less than 250 Baw Baw frogs remaining in the wild, this species’ extinction is imminent.
It is only one of many species dependent on intact forests and healthy streams, it is also listed internationally as critically endangered, but the Bracks government is planning to wipe out the last of its habitat by a ‘scientific logging’ experiment. This is more government eco-destruction hiding behind pseudo science.
The department’s manager of forests and biodiversity, Peter West, said the department wants to log areas of frog habitat to determine if they survive the disturbance and that the program will help the species’ survival.
“What we’re looking at doing is undertaking the trial of nine areas of 200 hectares . in State Forests just to try to get some understanding of what impact exposure to light and other variables actually has on the frog,”
The Baw Baw frog is internationally and nationally recognised as a species that is rapidly heading towards extinction.
It is currently listed as “Critically Endangered” under the Global Amphibian Assessment (2004) – IUCN Red Data Book, “Endangered” under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), and should be protected under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.
It is threatened by global climate change, restricted geographic range, a pathogenic fungus (that has also been associated with the extinction of at least 3 species in Australia), habitat loss by tourism development projects – and now more habitat loss is being specially planned to allow a few months worth of logging.
Sarah Rees The Central Highlands Alliance / ABC radio 22.10.04 / Jill