This project was formally completed in December 2021.
Since 2018, SGLN has worked on strategic and integrated control of foxes and rabbits on 16,000 hectares of public and private land from Venus Bay to Waratah Bay. This work has been undertaken with a number of stakeholders including West Gippsland CMA, Parks Victoria, Trust for Nature and private landholders.
The project area is part of one of eleven priority landscapes identified in DELWP’s Biodiversity Response Planning process under the Victorian Government Protecting Victoria’s Environment – Biodiversity 2037 plan.
Landscape-scale fox and rabbit control measures are being undertaken to reduce predatory pressure on key threatened species known to occur in the project area, including:
- 30 species of threatened fauna (including species listed under both the Victorian Flora & Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (FFGA) and Environmental Protection & Biodiversity Conservation 1999 (EPBCA)
- 17 species of migratory birds (listed under the Australian Government’s Migratory Bird Agreements with Japan (JAMBA) and China (CAMBA)
- 10 species of threatened flora listed under the FFGA.
In addition, fox and rabbit control benefits the broader community by reducing the negative impacts of these pests on livestock, pets and agricultural productivity.
The main methods of pest control used in this project are:
- Foxes – predominantly through baiting in park and farmland, and soft-jaw trapping in township areas
- Rabbits – through the release of the Calicivirus, a biological control that is spread through rabbit populations in summer via flies.
Additional activities included:
- A community awareness event at Tarwin Lower
- Training to enable landholders to obtain their Agricultural Chemical Users Permit with AgChem and 1080 certification so that they can continue pest control works after the end of the project.
SGLN hopes to continue this work in 2022/23 under new funding.
For more information, please contact:
Nick Stephens 0499 271 251.
nick.stephens@sgln.net.au
