The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has finalised the report , NSW Threat Abatement Plan for the Red Fox ( Vulpes vulpes).

Predation by the Red Fox has been recognised as a major contributor to the extinction of at least 54 species of vertebrates in Australia since European settlement and marked reductions in distribution and numbers of others. The baiting method will be implemented where fox impacts on threatened species are greatest.

Hidden NPWS Spending

NPA efforts to obtain detailed records of NPWS spending and budgets within each work area have been thwarted at every turn. NSW budget papers and the NPWS Annual Report merely summarise NPWS spending. The public can’t find details on revenue raised by new park entry fees, threatened species programs dropped with this year’s $2.5M funding cut, or costs of the recent NPWS restructure.

A question on NPA’s behalf by NSW Upper House independent, Richard Jones, to last year’s budget estimates committee failed to provide detailed NPWS figures. NPWS agreed to see if the figures could be provided at a meeting in November 2001, and a follow-up letter was sent to NPWS in January. No reply. When NPA asked NPWS Director-General directly in March, he asked us to write to the Environment Minister because of its ‘sensitivity’. NPWS Finance Director, Arthur Diakos, said he was concerned about providing a ‘level of detail’.

NPA seeks to ensure NPWS operate in a transparent and accountable way, and has lodged a Freedom of Information request to obtain the information.

Andrew Cox

Small advance for Solitary Island

The long awaited zoning plan for Solitary Islands Marine Park has been finalised with 12% of the park dedicated as 'no-take' sanctuary zone. NPA and other environment groups believe the decision didn’t go far enough, previously calling for at least a 25% sanctuary zone.

Many concessions were made to recreational fishers, and many weak and impractical measures will be introduced when the plan commences on 1 August 2002.

For example, grey nurse shark habitats, that scientists consider need full protection, were not adequately protected. Important grey nurse shark aggregation sites rely on bans on bottom fishing hooks with wire traces — this won’t stop the sharks being caught by other hooks, that evidence shows can cause shark mortality.

NPA was challenged about this at a meeting with an adviser to the Minister for Fisheries who was upset by our negative reaction to the announcement. It seemed that our advice on the grey nurse shark was better than what he receives from NSW Fisheries. Within a week of this meeting, the draft recovery plan for the grey nurse shark, delayed for years, was released.
These sharks are nationally listed as critically endangered, and urgent Government action is needed to prevent their extinction in NSW. Still the plan failed to acknowledge the need for no-take sanctuary zones in areas designated critical habitat, unlike the views of the national recovery plan team.

Carr still supports hunters' ‘Blood Sports Bill’

Surprisingly, the Carr Labor Government continues to support the Game Bill (see National Parks Journal, April 2002).

The draft legislation, written by shooters to reintroduce recreational duck and quail shooting, and expand shooting of feral animals on public lands, is administered by a Council chaired and controlled by hunters.

The unprecedented control given to hunters to regulate this dangerous, environmental damaging and inhumane sport has no similar model in any other state of Australia, where hunting permits are issued and regulated by the government, not the hunters.

At the time of printing, Government had not accepted any real changes to the Bill, now passed by the Lower House. Opponents are targeting Labor seats of Blue Mountains (Bob Debus) and Port Jackson (Sandra Nori).

A.C.