Newsletters
November 2006 - President’s Report
On 30th September 2006 the Friends had their Annual General Meeting. To summarise the group’s activities over the past 12 months the Friends have had:
- Ongoing discussions with members of the Recovery Team in relation to the possible trapping of a sub-adult male from the Kangaroo River colony to be relocated to Waterfall Springs for the captive breeding program. The Recovery Team have commenced trapping animals from other areas for the program.
- A Friends/NPWS fox trapping and shooting program in the Kangaroo Valley and Illaroo/Budgong areas last April. It was decided that a second session is needed and is planned for October/November, 2006.
- Collection of fresh BTRW scats from the Kangaroo River colony for genetic analysis. As yet not all the testing has been completed.
- Meetings with and correspondence to the Minister for the Environment, and the Sydney Catchment Authority (on site), vis-a-vis the then proposed raising of the Tallowa Dam wall and the potential impact on the BTRW colonies.
- Reprinting of 5,000 copies of the Friend’s amended brochure and membership form.
- The updating of the Friends’ website which is in the final draft stage.
- Changes to the Friends’ Statement of Rules in order to make them more “user friendly”.
- The attainment of an Authority to Fundraise.
- Participation in the 50th Anniversary of the Kangaroo Valley A&H Show in a grand parade with other community groups.
- Support of the KV Rock-Wallaby Youth Festival by providing show bags and stickers.
- Endeavouring to sell the Friends’ merchandise, including some presently for sale at the Fitzroy Falls Visitors Centre.
- Continued mowing, weeding and screening of the 1,000 endemic trees, shrubs and grasses planted in BTRW habitat along the Kangaroo River.
I would like to thank the Friends' Committee members for the last year of effort and commitment to the cause. Thank you especially to Melinda Norton, the Friends' Secretary. Thank you to Tess Heighes who is, unfortunately, unable to continue as a committee member. I also thank the members of the Friends for continuing with their support to help recover the Brush-tailed Rock-Wallaby from its status as Endangered.
The 2006-2007 Executive Committee Members are:
- President: Susan Roberston
- Vice-president: John Rowntree
- Secretary: Melinda Norton
- Treasurer: Brian Care
- Ordinary Members: Carla Jackett, Ernie Dumpleton, Mark Cole and Warrick Deacock
Susan Robertson,
President
NPWS News
Jacob Adams and Jodie Dunn are both acting in other positions and so the current casual technical officers are Dave Bain and Alison Prentice.
The State-wide Captive breeding program of BTRW has begun. There are currently approximately 12 animals in captivity. Another trip has been planned for further animals from a site in the Hunter Valley in October. It is not expected that any animals will be released until at least 2008 due to the time is will take to achieve a good captive breeding population and offspring.
Statewide funding has been received by NPWS from the Hawkesbury/Nepean CMA over the next 3 years for encouraging community fox control efforts around fox tap BTRW sites. In the Shoalhaven, this money will be used to extend our baiting program further afield and to continue our fox shooting program.
The Friends/NPWS were successful in their funding bid to the Southern Rivers CMA to conduct two sessions of fox trapping/shooting and associated monitoring in the valley. The first session was held in April 2006 and was considered highly successful. A total of 33 foxes were shot and a total of 29 properties participated. A number of properties that participated are ones on which no baiting is taking place. Therefore the shooting program has been an effective way of increasing our fox control efforts in the valley.
As a result of the first round of fox shooting, we have made a few changes in our approach (such as the location of the sand pads for monitoring changes in fox numbers) and are set to run round 2 of the fox shooting in November 2006.
In July 2006 we changed the Kangaroo Valley fox baiting protocol. We are now baiting for one week every month and have split the valley up into 3 sections. The core area which is baited each month, and two outer areas with area A being baited one month and area B the following. We have increased the total number of bait stations to 80 and updated our permission forms. 1080 baits are still being used in all bait stations for the whole week the stations are active. Stations are now being set up on Monday, checked Wednesday and checked/closed on Friday.
In Illaroo/Bugong the baiting has also been increased with bait stations now being active for 3 weeks every quarter (checked twice a week) with poison out for the whole period. We were previously only using 2 week baiting sessions and the stations were checked 3 times per week.
NPWS are continuing fox baiting on SCA estate and are in the process of negotiating funding from Department of Lands for fox baiting on crown land in the Kangaroo Valley and Bugong/Illaroo areas.
A few months ago a revised permit for the use of 1080 for fox control came out for 1080 concentrate. This is the substance used in the preparation of fresh meat baits. This permit allows for instances where baiting can be conducted as close as 150m from a neighbouring dwelling (has been reduced from 500m). However, as yet there has been no updated permit for the use of Foxoff baits so we are still required to meet the 500m distance restriction when using Foxoff. It is expected that such a document will be released shortly and new bait stations can be set up closer to neighbouring dwellings. The notification, however, will remain the same and thus all landholders within 1km of a bait station will be notified at least 3 days prior to the commencement of baiting sessions.
A total of 43 fresh BTRW scats were collected from the Kangaroo River BTRW colony for genetic analysis. While we don’t have all the results at this time, we have got an indication that there are at least 14 BTRW at this colony, 8 males and 6 females. There is a fair amount of inbreeding however, similar to levels recorded in Victoria. There are still a number of samples being analysed so it’s a matter of watch this space for the full report.
Attended a BTRW Recovery Team meeting up near Gloucester and saw numerous BTRW in the field. This area is in the Northern ESU (grouping of genetically similar animals) where BTRW numbers are at a much greater level (but still declining) compared to the Central ESU. The Shoalhaven BTRW belong to the Central ESU. Discussions were held with the local ranger regarding setting up monitoring on a population scale to monitor changes in the presence/absence of colonies across the landscape. It was really interesting to see the numbers of animals on tiny outcrops and how the monitoring requirements are so different up in northern NSW.
