Dear ,
Welcome to issue 188 of Feral Flyer.
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Federal budget cuts $33.4m from CRC Program
The Government will redirect $33.4 million over four years from the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program. The measures were announced as past of last week’s federal budget.
The big cuts will kick in for Round 14, in which the Invasive Animals CRC is bidding for extension funding.
“This reduced funding will make this round even more competitive, and probably only enable about 4 CRC bids to be funded” said IA CRC Chief Executive, Andreas Glanznig.
The Cooperative Research Centres Association (CRCA) is extremely disappointed that the government further cut the CRC program in last weeks budget above and beyond cuts undertaken during the 2010 election campaign.
Links:
- CRCA response to budget finding cuts
- Government ignores CRC achievement: cuts are blow to innovation (article in The Australian)
PestSmart Toolkits on the way
PestSmart toolkits, being developed by the Invasive Animals CRC, will provide comprehensive management information packages on several key vertebrate pest species including rabbits, wild dogs, foxes, feral pigs, feral cats, carp, and tilapia.
Information will be provided in various formats such as fact sheets, case-studies, technical manuals and guidelines and will be tailored towards landholders and land managers.
Fact sheets on fox bounties, feral cats, HOG‑GONE® for feral pig control and a case-study on coordinated group fox control are already online with more publications in the pipeline. Watch for updates on new PestSmart publications in Feral Flyer.
PestSmart toolkits are freely available online at http://www.feral.org.au/pestsmart/.
Australasian Vertebrate Pest Conference, 20-23 June
The 15th Australasian Vertebrate Pest Conference is approaching fast and is sure to be a not-to-be-missed event! This conference is held every three years and registration is still open if you haven’t yet done so. The preliminary conference program is now available online.
The Invasive Animals CRC is co-hosting the conference this year with the NSW Department of Primary Industries. Make sure you come and visit our display in the exhibit area during the conference.
If you are an IA CRC-associated researcher or student who will be attending the conference and can help out on our display booth for a bit please contact keryn.lapidge@invasiveanimals.com or tracey.lianos@invasiveanimals.com. It is a great opportunity to meet other pest animal researchers and land managers and share your research.
More information, preliminary program and to register: http://www.avpc.net.au/.
IA CRC Balanced Scientist Program: Amanda Elledge
Congratulations to Amanda Elledge who recently submitted her PhD on the ‘habitat preferences and environmental impacts of feral pigs in lowland tropical rainforests of north-eastern Australia’. Amanda was a student in the IA-CRC’s balanced scientist program and her research contributed to the Daintree demonstration site for controlling feral pigs (uptake program, project 10.U.6).
Amanda’s project built on current knowledge of feral pig ecology in lowland tropical rainforests and provided recommendations for the improved management of feral pigs in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. Two of the outcomes from her research were: (1) seasonal variations in soil nutrient concentrations, seedling regeneration and earthworm biomass can obscure long-term trends due to feral pig disturbances, and (2) the absence of a detectable treatment effect, particularly in an environment with a naturally low occurrence of feral pig rooting, does not mean that the gradual increases observed for seedlings and earthworms in fenced exclusion plots are not important in the long-term.
Links:
New wild dog management course
A new university course, on offer for the first time this year, has taken students into the bush to get the lowdown on tracking, trapping and monitoring wild dogs.
NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) research scientist, Guy Ballard, said the Wild Dog Ecology unit developed by NSW DPI and University of New England (UNE) senior lecturer, Dr Wendy Brown, explored real-life experiences in managing wild dogs.
“Last week we ran an intensive four-day residential school where many of the 12 students came in close contact with wild dogs for the first time in their lives,” Dr Ballard said.
The new unit is offered to third-year undergraduates and post-graduate students who were studying for degrees in zoology, science and environmental management.
Link: NSW DPI Media release
APVMA Regulatory update
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) has issued a Regulatory Update for April/May.
The update includes stories like: Emergency permits for mouse baits: The APVMA has published a position statement on a recent application for an emergency permit to help control the mouse plague affecting some states in Australia
Links: read the update online
New Chief Executive for Murray Darling Basin Authority
Minister for Water, Tony Burke, has announced that Dr Rhondda Dickson has been appointed to the position of Chief Executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority following the resignation of Mr Rob Freeman.
“Dr Dickson has extensive experience as a senior public servant in natural resource management areas with responsibility for policy areas including rural and regional policy, water, industry, climate change and primary industries,” Mr Burke said.
Dr Dickson is currently Deputy Secretary in the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and has held senior roles in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Environment and Heritage.
Link: Minister’s media release
Position Vacant
Research Assistant: Global Ecology Group, University of Adelaide
Closing Date: 1 June 2011
Location: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide
We are seeking a highly-motivated researcher to work on projects establishing up-to-date datasets for analyses of exotic vertebrates establishing pest populations in Australia. Critically, these datasets will build on expert knowledge from government agencies across Australia to provide complex invasion pathway tools for identifying pre- and post-border vertebrate pest incursion risks in Australia.
The project involves an international collaborative team of invasion biologists led by Dr Phillip Cassey at the University of Adelaide. This fixed-term, part-time (0.6FTE) position is available from July 2011 for a period of 1 year in the first instance.
Applicants should hold an Honours or Masters degree, and have a background in ecology, geographical information systems, or a related discipline. Experience in database design and strong quantitative skills, in order to assist with the output analysis, are also highly desirable.
More: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/jobs/current/16743/.
Media round-up
Tasmania Hailed a World Leader in Control of Carp
Tasmania’s carp eradication program has won international acclaim as a world leader in the control of an invasive fish species. [ More ]
Western shire baits for pigs and dogs after good season
A wild dog control group in the south west of Queensland is aerial baiting for pigs as well as wild dogs this year because the season is so good. [ More ]
Bounty: Sweet deal or major toothache?
Victoria’s government has announced that it’s on again – a $4 million bounty on wild dogs and foxes will be introduced in November, with foxes fetching $10 a scalp, and $50 to be paid on dogs. [ More ]
Winning season has a pest down-side
THE flush season across eastern Australia has triggered an explosion in feral pest numbers with mice, pigs, dogs and foxes creating a huge damages bill for agriculture. [ More ]
Will a bounty be the answer?
The big news in the Victorian state budget this week was a bounty on foxes and wild dogs. [ More ]
Expert fears bigger mouse plague impact
A leading mouse control researcher says the current mouse plague could be four times worse than the industry has prepared for. [ More ]
Invasive Animal CRC
Chairperson of the Invasive Animal CRC, Helen Cathles is concerned that recent comments by Rod Young, wild dog spokesman for the NSW Farmers Association, are misleading as to the purpose of the CRC. [ More ]
Travellers urged to help CamelScan
AUSTRALIANS travelling in the outback have been urged to report any feral camels they see to assist a nationwide campaign to limit the damage caused by over a million feral camels across the inland. [ More ]
Australia Taps Travelers for Feral Animal Tracking
You’ve certainly heard of the invasive problem with rabbits in Australia, but did you also know that camels, foxes, pigs, myna birds and wild dogs are also a huge problem? [ More ]
Pests are high on the agenda
Mouse numbers are increasing rapidly across the state, creating all sorts of problems as they arrive. [ More ]
IA CRC in the news
A selection of current media articles directly related to the IA CRC is available here. You can subscribe to receive updates directly to your email inbox or mobile phone, or save as a favourite page in your web browser and view at your convenience. This feed can also be provided to third parties without the risk of copyright breach.
Upcoming conferences
For more information on these and other events, please see details on our website.
2011
- International Urban Wildlife Management and Planning Conference, Austin, Texas, USA. 22-25 May.
- 15th Australasian Vertebrate Pest Conference. Sydney, Australia, 20-23 June.
- 4th Biennial Australian Animal Studies Group Conference. Brisbane, QLD. 10-13 July.
- 6th Annual Society for Risk Analysis Conference, Brisbane, QLD. 26-28 September.
- 8th European Vertebrate Pest Management Conference. Berlin, Germany 26-30 September.
- 38th Natural Areas Conference: Adaptation and protection of biodiversity in a changing world. Tallahassee, Florida, USA, 1-4 November 2011.
- HWCC Conflict training: Analyzing and Transforming Conflict to Create Sustainable Solutions for People and Wildlife. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, The Big Island, Hawaii, 1-4 November.
- 18th Annual Conference of The Wildlife Society. The Big Island, Hawaii 5-10 November.
- Ecological Society of Australia annual conference. Hobart, Tasmania. 21-25 November.
- Biolief: Biological Invasions and Ecosystem Functioning. Mar del Plata, Argentina, 21-24 November.
- International Congress for Conservation Biology. Auckland, New Zealand 5-9 December.
