Conservation Partnerships

Nathan Males manages the conservation partners program.

The drought has meant a change in focus for many of our valued conservation partners. Derek Hanlon and his feral animal control team have curtailed shooting at Tarcutta Hills (NSW) because of the risk of igniting fires, and have worked instead on preparing the property against the risk of wildfire. The dry in Queensland has meant that volunteer rangers have continued to work at Carnarvon, not hampered by the normally impassable tracks of the wet summer months. Two very skilled volunteer rangers, Don and Betty Wood, sweated under blazing skies on a detailed flora and fauna survey. Richard Pepper, a student from TAFE in Gippsland, located and wrote directions to the previously marked survey sites for them. Extracts from Don and Betty's report appear in the volunteer rangers article.

CVA visitors at Friendly Beaches Reserve. PHOTO: KAREN HARLAND

Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) volunteers have been busy on weed control and choosing sites for the new toilet at Tarcutta. They will also help design, construct and maintain a new track at the Liffey River Reserve with a grant we received from the Tasmanian Community Fund.

Karen Harland from Naturewise, the commercial ecotour division of CVA, led a group of ten visitors to the beautiful Liffey River and Friendly Beaches reserves as part of their tour. They assisted with weed monitoring, platypus surveys, wetland and shorebird counts and measured the impact of the root fungus Phytophthora. Hopefully this will be the first of many Naturewise ecotours which assist Bush Heritage reserves. Our thanks to Jenni Neil from Canberra who has offered to take on the Bell Miner research and monitoring at Brogo River Reserve (NSW) over the next few years.

Our special thanks to the volunteer team that supports the Conservation Programs Unit in Hobart; especially Doug Nichols (slide library and database programmer), Jane Keeble-Williams (slide library), Joelle Metcalf (reserve visitor's guides and volunteer rangers administration), Andrew Shipway (journal library) and Anne Armstrong (environment library).

Want to get away into the bush for a while? Become a volunteer ranger at the beautiful Carnarvon Station Reserve. A new program will begin at the Charles Darwin Reserve in Western Australia once staff are employed and established. Contact Nathan Males on nmales@bushheritage.asn.au or phone 03 6223 2670.