A MOBILE app allowing people to report koala sightings was one of the ideas raised at a roundtable discussion with a focus on our koala population.
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That would help with data collection and involve the community too.
Port Macquarie-Hastings Council met with key stakeholders including Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, threatened species commissioner Gregory Andrews, Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker and state agency representatives to discuss the long-term viability of the local government area’s koala population.
The talks were billed as instrumental in determining the most appropriate actions for koala conservation in the Port Macquarie-Hastings.
Recent data suggests the koala population may be in the early stages of decline.
Habitat loss, dog attacks and vehicle strikes are all threats to the population.
Threatened species commissioner Gregory Andrews said the thing he was most excited about was that the mayor Peter Besseling and Port Macquarie Koala Hospital supervisor Cheyne Flanagan were acting now.
He said Port Macquarie’s koalas were some of the most genetically robust in Australia.
“Koalas are probably Australia’s most loved marsupial,” he said.
“They define us as a nation.”
Mr Andrews said he was proud of Port Macquarie because hosting the roundtable was a way of saying you loved the koala enough to do something before it was too late.
The roundtable discussion included details about the Port Macquarie koala population, key threats to koalas and management actions for a sustainable koala population.
Ideas raised included exclusion fencing on the Pacific Highway south of the doughnut and the potential for koala crossings, identifying and prioritising hot spots and for Port Macquarie-Hastings Council to complete its koala strategy.
Mr Andrews said the council’s koala plan would be able to help guide development and help the city grow so people in Port Macquarie could enjoy sustainable development and keep their koalas.
The local government area’s koala population is nationally recognised as the most significant free ranging population on the eastern seaboard.