A backflip on logging rules in NSW's native forests won't save endangered greater gliders from the timber industry or from extinction, experts say.
The Environment Protection Authority announced it would dump a specific requirement for the Forestry Corporation to search for and protect greater glider den trees before logging commences.
Scientists who study the marsupial erupted in anger and warned the change would fast-track the loss of the species.
The EPA put things on hold and on Friday announced new search requirements.
But glider researchers and conservation groups say it will do little, if anything, to boost the glider's survival prospects.
Under the original rules, the state-owned Forestry Corporation was supposed to look for all den trees in logging compartments.
The new rules dial that back.
Searchers armed with spotlights will have to cover a total of 1km on foot, for every 100 hectares of forest earmarked for logging.
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.
And 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.
Australian National University Professor David Lindenmayer has studied greater gliders for more than 40 years and says the changes are almost meaningless.
"This animal is in so much trouble a log truck shouldn't be anywhere near this country," he says.
"This is largely fiddling around the edges. 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."
Wilderness Australia glider ecologist Andrew Wong said there was anger among scientists and conservation groups when the EPA briefed them on Friday.
He said EPA officials "looked mildly depressed.
"They told us that's as much as they are empowered to do," Mr Wong told AAP.
"The minister must intervene and give the EPA they power they need to save the greater glider from extinction."
WWF-Australia says there's no safety for gliders or koalas while there's logging in native forests, and it's time for NSW to transition away from it.
"The EPA has taken the bare minimum of our asks onboard, in terms of not abandoning the surveys, but this is by no means a step forward," WWF's threatened species ecologist Kita Ashman says.
The watchdog's chief executive Tony Chappel says the requirement for nocturnal surveys will complement other changes announced two weeks ago.
Those changes include an increase in the number of hollow-bearing, or potentially hollow-bearing, trees retained per hectare, which was touted as a counterbalance to the loss of the original den tree searches.
“Work will continue to determine if these new rules are working as intended and we may consider further improvements if required," Mr Chappel said.
AAP has sought comment from NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe.
The Forestry Corporation said it would work with the EPA to implement the new changes.
"It has always been Forestry Corporation’s desire to operate in line with regulations which find the right balance between conservation in state forests with active management for renewable timber production for the community."
Greater gliders are incredibly heat sensitive and rely on old, hollow-bearing trees for shelter and to breed.
It became an endangered species under federal and NSW laws in 2022, after the Black Summer bushfires wiped out over a third of its habitat.
