Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association

Check it out.  It's a disaster for native vegetation protection. 

The State Governments latest proposal to extend the urban growth boundary.  Keeps the developers happy, ensures global warming, wipes out thousands of hectares of indigenous vegetation on the promise of 2 large grassland parks out west.

The Planning Melbourne's Newest [un]Sustainable Communities report is available at http://www.vic.gov.au/planningmelbourne

I am truly blessed.  For, although I work in the light-industrial heartland of Melbourne’s South Eastern suburbs, it is also home of the Clayton campus of Monash University.

Melton has an enviable and quite distinct diversity of frogs, despite its being in the drier western region of Melbourne and despite its status as one of the fastest growing municipalities. Seven species have been recorded in the Melton area so far.

This wonderful issue has details of new ecological community listings under the EPBC Act, information about the South West Integrated Flora and Fauna database, a report on the fantastic IFFA trip to the zoo to look behind the scenes, a profile of Friends of Stony Creek, a review of the new book Moths of Victoria. 

 Download it here

2009 is the 150th anniversary of the release of wild rabbits on
Australian soil. In 1859, 21 European rabbits were released near Geelong
later becoming one Australia's worst biological scourges.
RabbitScan, a national program to survey the extent and impact of
rabbits, aims to collect over 5,000 surveys across Australia to gain an
in-depth understanding of the problem in 2009.

My name is Kelly Arbon and currently undertaking a project with Adelaide Zoo (David Taggart) and Uni looking at the spatial distribution of sarcoptic mange (in SA, Vic, NSW), what causes its distribution and how it spreads into wombat populations for future management. At the moment I am collecting mange location data (to map) and have been sending out this survey below to different groups. The survey simply asks to report diseased and NON diseased animals (wildlife, domestic and feral pests), the general location and the date or time period (in the last 10 years).

Society for Ecological Restoration International meetings provide an essential international forum for scientists and practitioners who look to restoration as a means to conserve the planet’s dwindling biodiversity and failing ecosystems. These meetings provide a critical platform to assist us in defining the principles of restoration, understanding goals and milestones, debating what ecosystem functions to measure and closing the gap between the science of restoration ecology and the practise of ecological restoration.

Ian Taylor is hosting this tour of his Western Plains Flora nursery which will include a focus on collection and propagation of indigenous seeds, particularly the difficult ones.

IFFA offers its sympathy to those who have lost relatives or friends in
the bushfires, or whose property has been damaged or destroyed in the bushfires around February 8th.

Like others, our organisation's members are seeking answers as we emerge
from the initial shock of the tragedy.
Many people have paid a high price for living close to the bush that they
love.

Over the last year or so quite a number of ecological communities have been listed under the Federal Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.