Grampians staff will soon convene a working group to review the delivery of the Grampians Ark fox-baiting program so we can learn, adapt and improve the program into the future. This includes representatives from research institutions, DSE, DPI, and local Landcare. The four year funding source for the program is now complete. The good news is the State Government has committed to fund pest plant and animals programs across public land within Victoria on an ongoing basis. We are hoping this review will help us obtain a slice of these ongoing funds.
Grampians staff recently re-located some historic graffiti within a cave close to the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby release site. The graffiti had peoples’ name or initials and the date ‘1879’ inscribed below. Although the significance of this site is yet to be determined, this highlights that there are still many hidden cultural treasures within the Grampians. Updating our information about … Read the rest
Category: Natural Values
WEB SITE OF INTEREST
The Victoria Naturally Alliance is a coalition of environment groups that want to see concerted action taken to protect the state’s biodiversity from a range of threats including climate change, habitat fragmentation and species extinction. Their website has snippets of news from all over.
… Read the rest
RESEARCH PROJECT Social attitudes towards dingoes and wild dogs in Victoria
Kathleen Kean
NOTE: (2012) This research project has now moved into its next phase. It’s too late for any of us to take part in the survey. We look forward to hearing about it when Kathleen has finished her work.
FOGG members are invited to have your say in this research to help provide a better understanding of the social attitudes towards dingo and wild dog management in Victoria.
The survey will take you approximately 10 minutes to complete and all respondents will go in a draw for the chance to win a $50.00 book voucher. Attitudes towards dingoes and ‘wild dogs’ vary considerably across and within different land uses and sections of the Australian community. A current lack of information regarding these views and their implications precludes effective management of dingoes and wild dogs, and therefore, our ability to ensure maximum simultaneous biodiversity, cultural and economic benefits.
A growing … Read the rest
THREATENED SPECIES GROUP MEETING.
The TSG held a most interesting planning meeting recently. Volunteers from FOGG and Stawell Field Naturalists met together with Pauline Rudolph, Dave Pitts and Noushke Reiter and two new recruits from DSE, Neville Walsh from the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, Dave Handscombe from GNP’s fire team (also wearing his plant knowledge cap), Neil Marriott (Australian Plant Society and botanist), Jacinta Williamson also from GNP, with Ryan Duffy and Dave Roberts there too for part of the day. We discussed the status and known locations of the plants we’ve been monitoring ( Daviesia laevis, Pimelea pagophila, Senecio macrocarpus, Eriocaulon australascium, Asterolasia phebalioides , Borya mirabilis, and Callistemon wimmerensis), the threats each is facing, what research is taking place and what actions should be taken. With Dave Roberts we also discussed the new fire zones, and the recommendations that came out of the Royal Commission into Black Saturday. (I won’t go into the … Read the rest
MORE ON FOXES
Daryl Panther, who has managed to catch eight foxes on the fence line between Kathy McDonald and me, has put the following notice in our local Halls Gap newsletter.
Expressions of Interest
Around six properties are required in Halls Gap to trap foxes; these animals are a great threat to our wonderful native wildlife.
A local licensed professional fox trapper would like to help reduce the number of foxes living in the Halls Gap area without using any poisons or guns. The traps used would be soft jaw restraining traps that hold the fox by the leg without causing injury or excess pain.
The properties required can be from large house blocks to acres, and need to have permanent human residents living on or next door to the site. They would have to be pet free properties and not rented holiday houses.
The trapper would set the trap, maintain the … Read the rest
FROM OUR TEAM LEADER, NATURAL VALUES 2011
During the past 2 months DSE and parks staff have unfortunately detected 3 mortalities at the Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby (BTRW) site. One mortality could be directly attributed to fox predation; as a result we have temporarily employed our fox baiting guru, Daryl Panther, to invest more effort baiting and monitoring fox activity around and within the BTRW site.
· Flood recovery funds will not only be devoted to reinstating walking tracks, roads and visitor sites. Soon staff will find out about the allocation of flood recovery funds for biodiversity projects. Projects nominated for funding include an assessment of the condition of significant natural values within flood affected areas (e.g. riparian vegetation, aquatic fauna) and continued effort eradicating and monitoring emerging weed populations, amongst other projects.
·The new State Government has committed to ongoing funding for introduced species programs on public land. Locally this means the ‘Grampians Ark’ program is likely … Read the rest
NATURAL VALUES RESEARCH PROJECTS
GRAMPIANS ARK, FOX PREY RESPONSE MONITORING
This programme is drawing to an end, and Parks are looking for funding to continue the fox baiting.
DEER
The Ph.D student working on deer is nearing completion of her thesis and we look forward to hearing her conclusions. Perhaps we can arrange a talk later in the year.
FERAL CATS
As noted last year, feral cats are already a major problem in many Parks, and as there is growing success in limiting fox numbers, feral cats may become even more of a threat. A research project is currently being worked on to find out more about the number and distribution of cats in the Park, but it is in very early stage. Halls Gap is supposed to be “cat free” but cats and kittens are continually being seen. The Halls Gap Ratepayers Association is pressuring the council to publicise the “cat free” status … Read the rest
The Flood
Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby News
October was a busy month for those involved with Brush-tailed Rock wallabies. Camera work has proven useful in monitoring our first wild born pouch young Shadow’s progress. Photos showed him hopping in and out of his mother’s pouch and exploring while his mother feeds.
Only half of the population was trapped in our Autumn trapping trip so that there was no risk of trapping Shadow. Three females and a male were trapped. They were all healthy and a little male pouch young was found in animal 118’s pouch. He was about a month old at the time and a very good sign that the population is settling into their new home.
On the 20th of October five more wallabies were released into the colony. Two males and three females joined the 13 animals already at the Moora Moora creek site. The animals were fitted with GPS collar with a VHF … Read the rest
Activity Reports – September 2010 to January 2011
h3. Saturday September 11: AGM and orchids.
_Meet at Cherrypool, on the Horsham – Hamilton Rd._
It feels so long ago, but it was a great day. Wet, of course. We had intended to go to the Black Ranges but had to settle for the Glenisla end of the Victoria Valley. We didn’t find the Brilliant Sun-orchid we were looking for, but plenty of others. We then went and looked in an old cemetery nearby, and it was just so hard to leave there was so much to see. We elected a new committee, as you will see below. It was good to see some hard working people able to retire and fresh ones take on their roles.
A brief verbal report was given by Proo remembering the important contribution that Stan Parfett volunteered over the years both as his time as President and member of FOGG. He is greatly … Read the rest