The Federal Court has delivered scathing criticism of the way Victoria’s state logging agency manages the habitat of two rare possums in a landmark court ruling that finds the agency unlawfully logged areas of habitat. The decision sets a legal precedent in applying federal threatened species protection laws to the logging industry in Victoria, which for more than 20 years has operated under a special exemption. The community group Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum, represented in court by Environmental Justice Australia, successfully argued that logging by VicForests in 66 areas of habitat critical to the vulnerable greater glider and critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum contravened federal law. In scathing court findings, which will have ramifications for native forest logging in other states such as NSW, Justice Debra Mortimer found VicForests had not carefully evaluated the “very real” threats of serious damage to the possums posed by its forestry operations in the Central Highlands.