Little marsupial diggers may hold key to preventing bushfires

The tiny marsupials who spend their nights digging for truffles on the forest floor could be holding together ecosystems in ways scientists are only beginning to understand. TAKING AN EARLY MORNING walk through the scrubby forest in Tasmania’s south-east, Professor Chris Johnson from the University of Tasmania can tell if the local bandicoots and bettongs …

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EEG helps take Australia’s environmental vandalism to international forum

Eight environment groups are turning to an international umpire to help combat the Abbott Government’s plan to dismantle environmental protection laws. The international Convention of Biological Diversity has been given a report detailing the Abbott government’s plans to hand down environment protection powers to the states and why this will worsen environmental losses. The next …

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States can’t handle environment laws

FIFTEEN years ago the Howard government introduced sweeping changes to national environmental laws, with the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Its objective was, and still is, to provide for the protection of the environment and promote the conservation of biodiversity. The act was built around an intergovernmental agreement allocating different responsibilities to the states …

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Environment Groups petition international body

As CSIRO announced that Australia is experiencing the fastest rate of mammalian decline in the world, eight environment groups have turned to an international umpire to help combat the Commonwealth Government’s attack on biodiversity laws. Environment East Gippsland along with the ACF, Lawyers for Forests and Environment Justice Australia is petitioning the Convention on Biodiversity …

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Planned burns are destroying habitat of endangered cockatoos

Large parts of habitat critical to the survival of the endangered south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo have been burnt, as part of planned burning programs by the state’s environment department. Fewer than 1500 of the cockatoos are left in the wild. The bird is perhaps better known as ”Karak”, the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games mascot. The …

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Dog baiting and mammal decline in eucalyptus forests

Research shows that where dingoes are trapped and poisoned, the ecosystem changes for the worst.“…we provide evidence that multiple cascade pathways induced by lethal control of an apex predator, the dingo, drive unintended shifts in forest ecosystem structure. We compared mammal assemblages and understorey structure at seven sites in southern Australia. Each site comprised an …

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Dingo poisoning should be stopped to protect native Australian mammals

Poisoning of dingoes – the top predators in the Australian bush – has a deleterious effect on small native mammals such as marsupial mice, bandicoots and native rodents, a UNSW-led study shows. The research, in forested National Parks in NSW, found that loss of dingoes after baiting is associated with greater activity by foxes, which …

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New land clearing laws fast-track habitat loss

Just before Christmas the State Government introduced new native vegetation policy that significantly weakens the protection of native habitat across Victoria. It did this despite more than 100 respected ecologists and scientists and a 70 strong force of local conservation groups pushing for the new land clearing laws to be overturned. Our remaining bushland and …

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New land clearing laws fast-track habitat loss

Just before Christmas the State Government introduced new native vegetation policy that significantly weakens the protection of native habitat across Victoria. It did this despite more than 100 respected ecologists and scientists and a 70 strong force of local conservation groups pushing for the new land clearing laws to be overturned. Our remaining bushland and …

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Dredging of the outlet at Lakes Entrance

Killing the Lakes with salt – for the offshore oil and gas industry. Lakes Entrance has once again been dug out to a depth that is killing the ecosystem of this Ramsar listed wetland and internationally renowned chain of coastal freshwater lakes. For the expedience of the offshore oil and gas industry, the Lakes are …

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