WA hosts national review of feral animal research
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WA is hosting the Commonwealth-funded Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (IA CRC) annual Uptake Program review at a Department of Environment and Conservation research site in Dwellingup this week.
The program involves a series of national research projects targeting invasive animal control.
DEC Director General Keiran McNamara said the IA CRC brought together public and private landscape managers to integrate national approaches to invasive animal management.
"DEC is one of the partner members of the IA CRC," he said. "Other Western Australian partners include the Department of Agriculture and Food, The University of Western Australia and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.
"Another 37 partners represent state, territory and Commonwealth conservation and primary production agencies, biotechnology companies, universities and community groups from around Australia. Six of these partners are overseas organisations."
The CRC began in 2005 with most field research sites for the program starting in 2006 for a period of seven years.
Mr McNamara said DEC's involvement in the CRC focused on research that would improve feral cat control techniques in WA as well as investigating the interactions of foxes and feral cats and the reasons for the lack of recovery of some mammals in south-west WA. The need for this research was highlighted in a review of the Western Shield fauna recovery program which was published in August 2004.
"By becoming a partner of the CRC, DEC has significantly increased its commitment to scientific research into the management and conservation of native wildlife," he said.
"It has contributed to four key scientific research projects sites throughout the State at Mt Gibson, the northern jarrah forest, Dryandra and Lake Magenta."
Mr McNamara said while the work focused on the role of introduced predators in mammal declines, and how these could best be managed, research also was being undertaken into the role of disease and the importance of environmental resources, including prey species availability, in regulating native and introduced predator populations.
Within the CRC the WA research sites are collectively included as a demonstration site within the Uptake of Products and Strategies Program. That program is led by Dr Steve Lapidge from the IA CRC Adelaide office.
Other demonstration sites in the Uptake Program are Kangaroo Island in South Australia, East Gippsland in south-east Victoria, the Northern Tablelands of north-east New South Wales and the tropical rainforests of Daintree, north-east Queensland.
Dr Lapidge said that with Dwellingup home to the biggest demonstration site in Australia, it was the obvious place to meet.
The program also supports development of products for better control of feral animals and use of field demonstration sites. The IA CRC is also examining the human dimensions or social aspects of invasive species control.
External reviewers of the IA CRC will be attending this meeting and providing feedback for decisions on future funding for the demonstration sites.
Dr Tony Peacock, Chief Executive Officer of the CRC, who also is attending the review, said the research site was the ideal setting to review the progress of each of the demonstration sites.
He also was particularly interested in returning to Dwellingup to gauge first hand how this small community had dealt with the recent bushfire crisis and hoped to see some signs of community recovery and recovery of the natural jarrah forest environment.