Preaching to the converted? Designing wildlife gardening programs to engage the unengaged

If wildlife gardening programs wish to maximize their contribution to the biodiversity of their area, they need to be recruiting individuals who would not have undertaken wildlife activities of their own accord. This study sought to assess which program features equate to the most success in recruiting previously unengaged members. Providing site assessments and native/indigenous plants or vouchers to members were features shown to increase the likelihood of recruiting individuals who were not planning on creating a wildlife garden; however, these are not currently recruiting unengaged participants on a large scale and there is a need to develop other strategies to attract more previously unengaged individuals to the wildlife gardening cause.

Backyard biodiversity: community and wildlife gardener attitudes and practices.

This thesis concludes that the level of community support for planting native vegetation and welcoming wildlife in yards warrants the encouragement of wildlife gardening to improve biodiversity. It presents strategies to increase the ability of wildlife gardening programs to recruit previously unengaged individuals, thereby maximising their ability to improve biodiversity.

Using environmental interventions to create sustainable solutions to problems to health and wellbeing

Recent research by Deakin University, in collaboration with Parks Victoria and its Strategic Partners, indicates that contact with nature may promote human health and wellbeing. International research indicates that simply viewing a natural scene or watching wildlife reduces stress and tension, improves concentration, remedies mental fatigue, boosts immunity, and enhances psychological health. This is aside from any physical health benefits flowing from reduced stress, increased exercise and improved air quality when contact with nature involves activities in natural environments. The literature suggests that interacting with nature through gardening or having a companion animal is also beneficial for health, and where these activities involve contact with other humans, might extend benefits beyond the individual to the community, through enhanced social capital. This paper sets out the potential scope of work flowing from the initial research, in terms of target groups, research foci, intervention strategies, and likely benefits, and reports on progress in establishing a program of Australian,based empirical research. It proposes the establishment of alliances between researchers and practitioners in a range of disciplines (including environmental health) to ensure that the links between contact with nature and human health and wellbeing are explored and expressed in ways that are both beneficial and sustainable.

Public and stakeholder values of wildlife in Victoria, Australia

This paper explores the management implications of a recent study that was designed to explore public and stakeholder values of wildlife in Victoria, Australia. Questionnaires (n = 1431) were used to examine values and knowledge of wildlife held by residents from seven Victorian municipalities and members of six wildlife management stakeholder groups. The results suggest that most Victorians have a relatively strong emotional attachment to individual animals (the humanistic value) and are interested in learning about wildlife and the natural environment (the curiosity/learning/interacting value). In comparison, the negativistic, aesthetic, utilitarian-habitat and dominionistic/wildlife-consumption values were not expressed as strongly. These findings suggest that wildlife managers should expect support for wildlife management objectives that reflect the relatively strong humanistic orientation of Victorians and tailor management and education programs to appeal to this value and Victorians' interest in learning about wildlife.

Wildlife management in Australasia : perceptions of objectives and priorities

The aim of this study was to examine the values and attitudes held by Australasian wildlife managers as they relate to wildlife management issues, and to gain some insight into possible future directions and priorities for Australasian wildlife management. During December 2002 – February 2003, 138 questionnaires were completed by members of the Australasian Wildlife Management Society (AWMS) and registrants of the 2002 AWMS annual conference. Threatened species management, threatened communities/habitats, and management of introduced species were the issues rated as needing the highest priority for the Australasian Wildlife Management Society. Issues such as animal rights, genetically modified organisms and timber harvesting on public lands were the lowest-rating issues. Respondents expressed a strong belief in managing and controlling wildlife to achieve wildlife management objectives, a strong belief that wildlife should be protected and that wildlife managers should minimise the pain and suffering of individual animals, and a belief that resources should be directed towards conserving wildlife populations rather than protecting individual animals from non-threatened populations. While respondents held a strong belief that it is important to consult the community when developing wildlife management policies and programs, there was little support for a comanagerial approach where the community has a significant role to play in decision-making processes.

Powerline corridors: degraded ecosystems or wildlife havens?

Management of powerline corridors in Australia has traditionally focused on the complete removal of vegetation using short rotation times owing to the perceived hazard of fire associated with corridor vegetation. Because of the intense management associated with fire hazards, little thought has been given to use of powerline corridors by wildlife. This has resulted in corridors traditionally being viewed as a source of fragmentation and habitat loss within forested ecosystems. We investigated the responses of small mammal communities living in a powerline corridor to management-induced vegetation changes at different successional stages, to determine whether a compromise could be reached between managing corridors for fire and biodiversity. Habitat modelling in the corridor and adjacent forest for three native and one introduced small mammal species demonstrated that species responded to changes in vegetation structural complexity, rather than time-since-management per se. Early seral stages of vegetation recovery after corridor management encouraged the introduced house mouse (Mus domesticus) into corridors and contributed little to biodiversity. Mid-seral-stage vegetation, however, provided habitat for native species that were rare in adjacent forest habitats. As the structural complexity of the vegetation increased, the small mammal community became similar to that of the forest so that corridor vegetation contributed fewer biodiversity benefits while posing an unacceptable fire risk. If ecologically sensitive management regimes are implemented to encourage mid-seral vegetation and avoid complete vegetation removal, powerline corridors have the potential to improve biodiversity. This would maintain landscape connectivity and provide habitat for native species uncommon in the forest while still limiting fuel loads in the corridor.

Gender differences in the perceptions of wildlife management objectives and priorities in Australasia

It is now well established that men and women often differ significantly in their attitudes and responses to workplace situations, challenges and policies. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of gender on perceptions and priorities held by Australasian wildlife managers. Data were collected via a questionnaire distributed during December 2002 – February 2003 to members of the Australasian Wildlife Management Society (AWMS) and registrants of the 2002 AWMS annual conference. The results show that there are now significantly more female AWMS members than there were in the early 1990s, a possible indication of a change in the wider wildlife management profession in Australasia. Consistent with previous research, male respondents held different views from female respondents about wildlife and wildlife management. In particular, male respondents were significantly more likely to express the ‘management/consumptive use of wildlife’ perspective than female respondents. Interestingly, this gap was observed only in the 18–30-year age category. The paper examines what these differences might mean for the future of wildlife management in Australasia.

Toward incorporating human dimensions information into wildlife management decision-making

This paper presents a comparison of values of wildlife held by stakeholder groups and public samples in Victoria, Australia, with a sample of wildlife managers' beliefs about these groups. It also examines the managers' views of the importance of utilizing human dimensions information in their decision-making. In-depth interviews were conducted with wildlife/environmental managers in a sample of state and local government agencies and members of wildlife management stakeholder groups. Questionnaires were used to explore values of wildlife held by stakeholder group members and the Victorian public. There are several instances of interviewed managers misunderstanding the values held by stakeholder groups and subsets of the Victorian public. Such discrepancies can be reduced by incorporating systematically obtained human dimensions information into management decisions. Interviewed wildlife managers appear to appreciate the importance of human dimensions information; however, there was some uncertainty about how it could be applied.

Wildlife management in Australasia : perceptions of objectives and priorities

The aim of this study was to examine the values and attitudes held by Australasian wildlife managers as they relate to wildlife management issues, and to gain some insight into possible future directions and priorities for Australasian wildlife management. During December 2002 – February 2003, 138 questionnaires were completed by members of the Australasian Wildlife Management Society (AWMS) and registrants of the 2002 AWMS annual conference. Threatened species management, threatened communities/habitats, and management of introduced species were the issues rated as needing the highest priority for the Australasian Wildlife Management Society. Issues such as animal rights, genetically modified organisms and timber harvesting on public lands were the lowest-rating issues. Respondents expressed a strong belief in managing and controlling wildlife to achieve wildlife management objectives, a strong belief that wildlife should be protected and that wildlife managers should minimise the pain and suffering of individual animals, and a belief that resources should be directed towards conserving wildlife populations rather than protecting individual animals from non-threatened populations. While respondents held a strong belief that it is important to consult the community when developing wildlife management policies and programs, there was little support for a comanagerial approach where the community has a significant role to play in decision-making processes.

Predictive distribution models and their application in wildlife conservation

Wildlife managers are often faced with the difficult task of determining the distribution of species, and their preferred habitats, at large spatial scales. This task is even more challenging when the species of concern is in low abundance and/or the terrain is largely inaccessible. Spatially explicit distribution models, derived from multivariate statistical analyses and implemented in a geographic information system (GIS), can be used to predict the distributions of species and their habitats, thus making them a useful conservation tool. We present two such models: one for a dasyurid, the Swamp Antechinus (Antechinus minimus), and the other for a ground-dwelling bird, the Rufous Bristlebird (Dasyornis broadbenti), both of which are rare species occurring in the coastal heathlands of south-western Victoria. Models were generated using generalized linear modelling (GLM) techniques with species presence or absence as the independent variable and a series of landscape variables derived from GIS layers and high-resolution imagery as the predictors. The most parsimonious model, based on the Akaike Information Criterion, for each species then was extrapolated spatially in a GIS. Probability of species presence was used as an index of habitat suitability. Because habitat fragmentation is thought to be one of the major threats to these species, an assessment of the spatial distribution of suitable habitat across the landscape is vital in prescribing management actions to prevent further habitat fragmentation.