Julie Quits WIRES Board

Julie Mills Taylor, our WIRES State Council rep, has told the Sydney Morning Herald that she quit the WIRES Board because of WIRES' failure to effectively spend the $100 million of donations it received after the bushfires and because of the organisation’s poor management and culture of recrimination and secrecy.

Julie argues the money should have been spent on projects such as the purchase of protected habitats for wildlife releases, dedicated wildlife veterinarian hospitals and/or identifying and fixing parts of the state’s highways where there are high animal kills.

She claims that board time was taken up with dealing with internal disputes and that high-cost, large scale projects were never presented to the board for funding.

A review in October 2020 by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission found that WIRES was responding well to the challenge posed by the huge donations received from the public and that it had committed to strengthening its financial management systems. Julie argues that it hasn’t met this commitment.

Ref: Nick O’Malley, Failure to spend bushfire donations prompts WIRES board defection, The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August 2022.

Endangered Greater Glider

Last month the greater glider was officially listed as “endangered”. It is only six years since it was listed as “vulnerable” under the federal legislation. However no conservation or recovery plan was put in place and logging and land clearing, the main threat to the glider, continued unabated. The 2019/20 bushfires exacerbated the situation.

In the last 21 years (covering three generations of greater gliders) the population has declined by more than 50%.

"Being listed as endangered does nothing to boost protection for Australian species unless meaningful policies and legislated protection measures are actually implemented in response.”

Providing nest boxes is a short-term stop-gap measure and reforestation will take over a hundred years to create the necessary hollows the greater glider relies on. The only effective measure to prevent the extinction of the greater glider (now recognised as three different species) is to stop native forest logging and clearing.

Ref: Darcy Watchorn and Luke Emerson, Greater gliders are hurtling towards extinction, and the blame lies squarely with Australian governments, The Conversation, 8 July 2022.

New Wildlife Corridor

It is hoped the greater glider will benefit from a new wildlife corridor connecting the wetlands of Coila Lake and coastal woodlands at Bingie.

Over 3,500 native trees have been planted across a kilometre of land to restore connectivity between natural habitats and provide food for wildlife. This is a joint project between Local Land Services (LLS), CoastWatchers and EcoCrews.

Labour is being supplied by EcoCrews, “a social enterprise of Campbell Page who provide jobs to locals supported by accredited training while completing much needed environmental projects”. Funding is supplied by CoastWatchers via a grant from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Ref: New wildlife corridors helping to protect native animals in the Eurobodalla, The Beagle, 6 July 2022.

State of Environment Report

The State of Environment Report is produced every five years. The latest report, produced by 30 experts, details the decline of Australia’s environment. Its five key findings are:

1. Australia’s environment is deteriorating, including the amount and condition of native vegetation, soil, wetlands, reefs, rivers and biodiversity. There are increasing numbers of species listed as threatened or endangered.
2. Climate change threatens every ecosystem compounding damage already caused by land clearing, invasive species, pollution and urban expansion. Extreme weather events and bushfires are more frequent and more severe.
3. Indigenous knowledge and management are helping to improve environmental outcomes.
4. Environmental management is lacking. The effort and investment is paltry compared to what is needed.
5. Environmental decline and destruction is harming human well-being and costing the economy billions of dollars.

Ref: Emma Johnston et. al. This is Australia’s most important report on the environment’s deteriorating health, The Conversation, 19 July 2022.

Charges Dismissed Against Teens

Charges have been dismissed against two unnamed teenagers who deliberately killed 13 kangaroos at Long Beach last October. The 17 year olds pleaded guilty and had to attend a young offenders conference. There they had to front up to people who pointed out the impacts of their crime, including Janelle Renes, our branch chair.

Janelle told the media, “WIRES respects the decision of the court and Juvenile Justice,”

The lone survivor of the attack, a joey named Hope, has since been released from care.

Ref: Albert McNight, Charges dismissed against teens who admitted causing Batemans Bay kangaroo massacre, About Regional, 29 July 2022.