Australian Forest Products Association NSW (AFPA NSW) Sue Grau congratulates Dr Brad Law who has been appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW.
"Since the Society was founded in 1887, fewer than 100 people have been elected as Fellows so Dr Law joins an elite group. It's a great recognition of Dr Law's contribution, especially to forest science and particularly our understanding of koalas in NSW," said Ms Grau.
"We are lucky to have Dr Law working here in NSW and acknowledge his valuable work investigating the koala populations in the north of the state. This currently includes looking at how koalas use the landscape after timber harvesting, in a joint project with Forestry Corporation of NSW and the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.
"This ground-breaking work using GPS tracking suggests that koalas use young regenerating trees as well as mature forest in their ranges. This is some of the information contributing to our knowledge of how koalas interact with their habitat, which will underpin recommendations for industry operations.
"Dr Law is also using acoustic recording of koala bellows during spring mating season to more accurately estimate koala populations. Some of Dr Law's recent work finalised after the 2019/20 bushfires suggests there may be far more koalas in State forests than previously thought.
"A shout out to the NSW Government for continuing to support an evidence-based approach to forest management. We look forward to such research being integrated with government policies and appreciate the team of scientists working hard to inform the continued sustainable production of native and plantation timbers," concluded Ms Grau.
