For five members of the WCMN and Wendy their DSE group facilitator, a 6am start leaving Wedderburn in the dark heading for cold and wet Ballarat meant that it would have to be a good conference. And indeed it was. We joined the 400 participants at the conference to learn more of the theme “Vulnerability and Resilience of Ecosystems.
The Plenary Session commenced with a stimulating Keynote address by Dr John Williams from Natural Resources Commission New South Wales. His Address “Shifting Paradigms: incorporating a resilience conceptual framework into the work of the NSW Natural Resources Commission – a new context for examining and communicating on landscape function” presented the challenges of applying a new way of thinking to landscape management..
Emeritus Professor Martin Westbrooke presented “Addressing the lack of regeneration of arid woodland trees: management of total grazing pressure through culling and water point closure” this included a number of issues that are relevant to our area. Dr Peter Spoor presented “Conservation values of roadside vegetation in fragmented landscapes of Victoria”. Again this is a topic highly relevant for the WCMN at present.
In the breaks we were able to examine the Posters displayed by other researchers to illustrate their projects. A good source of ideas for poster presentations for WCMN projects!
The second session was divided into two streams – Wetlands and conservation, and Fire and Landscape ecology. All of which provided us with an interesting, and diverse range of project presentations.
The afternoon sessions covered Vertebrate Ecology and management and Restoration and management.
This conference was a most stimulating experience for me as an “ordinary” member of the WCMN. It was interesting to learn of the variety of research projects currently being conducted and especially the projects that related to our particular fields of endeavour. More than 20 projects were presented orally and the Best Student presentation was awarded to Justine Smith who presented “Hit me with your best shot” maximising capture rates through a camera trap set up. This presentation gave an alternate (vertical) camera setup to capture images of the southern brown bandicoot and long nosed potoroo. This yet again was thought provoking for the WCMN Malleefowl camera monitoring project.
A long day, we returned well after dark, but worth it for the knowledge and information that we gained.
Annette Robertson
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