25/06/2005 - The Australian
Government will fund a three-year position
for an Aboriginal trainee to join a groundbreaking
research project into the effects of fire
on local ecology in Booderee and the Shoalhaven,
the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister
for the Environment and Heritage Greg Hunt
said today.
Mr Hunt made the announcement while accompanying
researchers from Booderee National Park
and the Australian National University on
a fauna monitoring survey in the park on
Saturday.
"This fire project is a partnership
between the Indigenous Wreck Bay Community
(the traditional owners of Booderee), ANU
field ecologists and Booderee National Park.
It has exciting long-term implications for
environmental management across Australia,"
Mr Hunt said.
"So far the transfer of knowledge
between traditional owners and ecologists
has been on an informal basis. This funding
will guarantee that age-old knowledge of
animals and the impact of fire continues
to be passed on to modern scientists. In
turn, Indigenous owners are gaining new
skills in modern scientific survey and management
methods."
Booderee National Park and ANU 's Centre
of Resource and Environmental Science are
jointly managing the $600,000 federally
funded fire research project. The project
is examining the long-term influence of
fire on plants and animals.
"It's the first time the area has
been systematically surveyed to see what
animals occur here and how fire affects
them," Mr Hunt said. "With 40
years of documented fire history on this
land together with detailed local knowledge,
we have a unique opportunity to learn more
about the impact of fire.
"Already the research team has found
a couple of animal species never recorded
here before, such as the eastern chestnut
mouse Pseudomys gracilicaudatus.
"And they have disproved some assumptions
about fire. For example it was thought that
the 2003 wildfires would have devastated
populations of the nationally endangered
eastern bristlebirds Dasyornis brachypterus.
"But intensive surveys have shown
that this ground nesting bird is thriving
- and in new habitats right across the park.
"There was intensive baiting of foxes
before and after the fires, and we now realise
that the eastern bristlebird had been confined
to its impenetrable heathland habitat to
escape predators.
"Booderee has around one thousand
eastern bristlebirds - and there are only
another thousand in scattered habitats up
and down the Australian east coast. This
project will help save them.
"This type of information gained from
large ecological surveys, bringing together
a range of skills and knowledge, is essential
in developing the correct strategies to
protect vulnerable species, " Mr Hunt
said.
