Trying to spot nocturnal creatures during the day? NSW government's Utopia moment

Sensationally adding to the angst for conservationists, the state's Environment Protection Agency (EPA) apparently responded - amid it's own investigations into the suspected illegal destruction of glider habitat in two state forests - by scrapping the rule that required loggers to look for the endangered possums at all.

The report, titled 'This is what extinction looks like', was published in November and authored by South East Forest Rescue, WWF and Wilderness Australia. It said at least 20 den trees were found in the Tallaganda State Forest, outside Canberra, which Forestry loggers had failed to identify and protect with a 50-metre exclusion zone.

"The established method for identifying a greater glider den tree is to physically see the nocturnal species entering or exiting a hollow using spotlights at night," the report said. "However, a Forestry Corporation NSW spokesperson admitted that broad area habitat searches, which included looking for den trees, were conducted during the day."

Until this month when the EPA initially dropped the rule, Forestry Corp had been required to search for endangered greater gliders, the largest kind of gliding possum in the world, entering or leaving tree hollows and to then protect each occupied den tree with an exclusion zone where logging was not permitted.

The environment watchdog watered down the rule earlier this month, though, doing away with the need for loggers to search for the gliders in favour of a new regulation that required they maintain more hollow-bearing trees instead - up to 14 from the original eight in high-density glider areas, and 12 instead of eight in low-density areas.

The move inspired the ire of conservationists who claimed it would fast-track the species' extinction and in a final twist, the EPA quickly announced new search requirements on February 16. As of the past fortnight, searchers armed with spotlights will now have to cover a total of one kilometre on foot for every 100 hectares of forest earmarked for logging. Unless gliders are seen entering or leaving hollows, trees aren't officially classed as den trees deserving of protection and a 50-metre buffer zone.

Forestry Corporation said earlier this month it had worked with the EPA on the dialled-back rules and felt they struck the right balance between conservation and renewable timber production.

"Forestry Corporation is confident the changes will still enable us to supply the current contracted timber volumes," it told AAP. "We are also establishing a landscape monitoring program for Southern Greater Gliders across the state using thermal drones and spotlight surveys."

But conservationists say even the perceived backflip on the search rule will do little, if anything, to save the gliders. Surveys will be carried out from roads, tracks or trails but experts say gliders are least likely to be in the vicinity of those disturbed patches of bush. Australian National University Professor David Lindenmayer, who has studied greater gliders for more than 40 years, told AAP the changes are almost meaningless.

"This animal is in so much trouble a log truck shouldn't be anywhere near this country," he said. "The EPA, they're trying hard, but this is really stupid government policy. You don't log their habitat if that's a key threatening process."

NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said earlier this month the new rules were "a first step, not the final step".

"These new rules are an upgrade in protections for greater gliders and protect more habitat than the previous rules," she said. "The EPA will continue to refine and update protections and work with all stakeholders to do this to ensure that greater gliders survive."

The glider was reclassified from vulnerable to endangered after the Black Summer bushfires wiped out more than a third of its habitat.

"The tragic thing is that greater gliders are one of the easiest animals to protect," North Coast Environment Council vice president Susie Russell said. "Simply putting a 100 metre buffer zone around where they are seen would protect most of their home range. It's not hard if there is the political will."

In less depressing news, though, it appears that the Hunter's population of greater gliders are thriving after conservation outfit Aussie Ark revealed several of the endangered species had taken up residence in the Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary. Aussie Ark said that the gliders had voluntarily chosen a 400-hectare feral-proof bushland that has proven a haven for native species.