By JESSE GRAHAM
WHEN the Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum group formed in 2004, around half a dozen people were at the helm of the project.
Today, the group has a mailing list of over 600, and group member Steve Meacher said the group’s work was far from over.
“It’s good for the group to have survived 10 years, and grown as much as it has to achieve quite a lot,” he said.
“But we’re still seeing our favourite possum in quite a lot of trouble.”
On Thursday 3 July, the group marked 10 years since its incorporation in 2004, though actual celebrations are planned for later in the year.
Mr Meacher said the group would celebrate its 10th birthday on the 10th day of the 10th month.
He said that when Sarah Blair started the group originally, there was not much awareness of the animal, which had been Victoria’s faunal emblem since 1971 – and previously thought extinct.
One of the big achievements of the group, according to Mr Meacher, has been raising the profile of the animal and generating awareness of the animal’s dwindling numbers.
“The leadbeater’s possum has never needed friends more than it does now,” he said.
The Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum group has campaigned for the survival of the possum in the central highlands area around Toolangi – the only remaining habitat for the possum species.
Mr Meacher said the number of possums left in the central highlands sat around 1500, while the other species of the animal residing in Yellingbo was thought to have a population of around 40.
Much of the leadbeater’s possum habitat was devastated during the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, and the group has campaigned against logging in the area to try and protect remaining colonies.
The logging industry, however, has argued that it is avoiding harm to the animal, with recently-implemented changes to practices and exclusion zones brought in as a result of a Leadbeater’s Possum Advisory Group (LPAG) report.
In a book released by CSIRO Publishing, The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012, the leadbeater’s possum is now listed as critically endangered.
