Bushfires: Species may be listed as threatened after fires

Research published in the Nature Ecology and Evolution journal found 49 species not currently listed as threatened in Australia now warranted urgent assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

This included the Kate's leaf-tailed gecko, a lizard restricted to a 40 square kilometre range on the eastern side of the Clarence River in northern NSW.

The species lost its entire range in the 2019-20 bushfires.

It also included the short-eared possum, a species found north of Sydney that was once classed as a mountain brushtail possum, which lost 64 per cent of its range in the fires.

Neither species is listed as threatened under Australia's environmental laws.

The team of 24 researchers from institutions like the University of Queensland and Australian National University said rapid extinction risk assessment of these non-listed species was urgent.

"Without listing, there is no trigger for dedicated monitoring and recovery efforts," the researchers said.

If all 49 species were to be listed as threatened, the number of threatened Australian terrestrial and freshwater animals would increase by 14 per cent.

The 2019-20 fires were described as "unprecedented" in their spatial extent and severity.

Around 97,000 square kilometres of southern Australian forest, woodlands, heathlands, grasslands and farmlands burned, making the fires at least 50 times more extensive than California's worst wildfires on record and five times the size of the 2019 fires in the Amazon.

Of the 832 vertebrates species impacted, 107 are considered threatened.

Three species lost more than 80 per cent of their known range, including the Kangaroo Island dunnart and the long-footed potoroo. Both are considered to be endangered.

Critically endangered species such as the Southern Corroboree Frog lost 30 per cent of its known habitat in the fires, meaning its status may have to be reclassified.

The frog is found only in the sub-alpine bogs of the Kosciuszko National Park, with a range of around 6000 hectares.

The closely related Northern Corroboree Frog also lost 26 per cent of its known range.

The species, which is found only in the ACT's Brindabella Ranges and adjacent Bogong Mountains and Fiery Ranges in NSW, is also critically endangered.

The study comes after a an interim review of Australia's national environmental conservation laws found the legislation had only limited capacity to respond to emerging threats such as bushfires or other disasters.

"There is no avenue for an emergency listing of newly threatened species in response to natural disasters such as the 2019-20 bushfires," Professor Graeme Samuel wrote.

The act had no way of responding to the pressure climate change was placing on the environment either, Professor Samuel said.

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"The impact of climate change on the environment is building, and will exacerbate pressures, contributing to further decline. Given its current state, the environment is not sufficiently resilient to withstand these threats. The current environmental trajectory is unsustainable."