Meet David: shaping how we protect natural resources for the future

When the grainy camera trap photos arrived in his inbox, Professor David Lindenmayer’s response was immediate.

“Leadbeater’s possum, unmistakeably. There’s nothing else that looks like it,” he says.

For Lindenmayer, who has spent decades studying the rare and critically endangered marsupials, the accidental sighting gave him a sense of relief.

“It’s fantastic that they’re in Kosciuszko. It gives me some relief because it means there’s extra populations out there,” he says.

“It doesn’t change that they’re critically endangered. But it’s kind of a bit more insurance.”

While it’s known that the possums live in Victoria’s Central Highlands, they hadn’t been found in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a century.

The discovery hit the headlines but it’s also a personal highlight for Lindenmayer, who says he’s fond of the little creatures.

He’d surveyed Kosciuszko National Park for them back in 1987-1988 during his PhD, guided by climate models developed at what was then the ANU Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, but now part of the Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University’s (ANU) College of Systems and Society.

“The area always seemed marginal for the Leadbeater’s possum compared to their strongholds in Victoria, with only sub-fossil deposits in caves suggesting that they were once there,” he says.

“We forecast potential places where the animal might live, and Kosciuszko was one of them. But I didn’t really think it was possible.”

“Most of our big national parks are not actually properly surveyed because we hopelessly under-invest in the environment.”

Why this discovery matters beyond the species

Lindenmayer says that finding the possum highlights a few broader conservation principles.

“It illustrates the importance of really big national parks and conservation areas, providing the space and conditions that threatened wildlife needs,” he says.

“The second thing is that new technologies can be exciting for detecting things that you wouldn’t otherwise know are there.”

While the camera traps that captured these images represent a revolution in wildlife detection, Lindenmayer says that technology alone isn’t enough.

“You actually need people out there in the field, and most of our big national parks are not actually properly surveyed because we hopelessly under-invest in the environment,” he says.

Four decades of research drives sweeping policy change

While the possum discovery hit the headlines, for Lindenmayer it’s just one part of his decades of research that has reshaped Australian conservation policy.

His body of work – “more than 970 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 49 books” over 40 years – provided the evidence base for Victoria’s decision to end native forest logging. His work showed that logging was costing taxpayers $1.3 billion in Tasmania and $1.5 billion in Victoria through losses and subsidies, while making forests more fire-prone and generating significant emissions.

Beyond forest policy, his team’s farm dam research through the Sustainable Farms initiative exemplifies how rigorous science can create solutions that simultaneously benefit farmers, biodiversity and climate.

The research revealed that most farm dams have poor water quality affecting livestock health, but renovation transforms these systems within six to 12 months. The work by Lindenmayer and his team shows that benefits include reduced harmful bacteria, faster cattle fattening, enhanced biodiversity and a shift in dams being a carbon source to carbon sink.

Fire management revolution out of forest science

Lindenmayer’s research has also revolutionised fire management by showing that logged forests remain highly flammable for up to 70 years. This led to recommendations to develop early detection and suppression systems using drone technology, with modern drones capable of carrying 5,000 kilograms of water or fire retardant to target house-sized areas within 10-20 minutes.

This challenged conventional burning practices, showing that unburned patches after fires are crucial for biodiversity recovery – leading park managers to resist pressure for “blackout burning” of these vital refugia.

For Lindenmayer, who has supervised more than 80 PhD students over his career, his years of work have reinforced that meaningful ecological research requires patience and persistence of both scientists and wildlife.

“Cumulative effects across landscapes and climate impacts spanning multiple drought cycles are invisible to short-term studies,” he says.

“You see a whole range of things happening that you wouldn’t otherwise see. Those incremental changes and findings are often what really matters.”

This article was co-published with ANU Research and Innovation News.