Rangeland NRM WA visit

On the 13th of February we were very fortunate to be visited by Jane Bradley and Bevan Gray from Rangelands NRM (Natural Resource Management) WA. Rangelands NRM WA is a non-government organisation which supports and encourages the sustainable use of our natural resources – land, flora and fauna, fresh water and coastal marine environment. The Gnaraloo Turtle Conservation Program is partly funded by Rangelands.

On the morning of the 13th of February Jane and Bevan came out with Casey and myself for our morning patrol of Gnaraloo Bay Rookery. Jane walked with Casey to BP9 and Bevan walked with me down to GBN. Bevan and I had a great chat about the turtles, crabs, weather, life, the GTCP and different other projects we had been involved in and what I wanted to do after finishing at Gnaraloo. Fortunately for the first time in weeks there were two loggerhead tracks in this subsection that I was able to show Bevan to give him an idea of how turtle track monitoring worked, although unfortunately they were only U tracks.

After the morning patrol we gave Jane and Bevan a presentation about sea turtles and our research at Gnaraloo and answered any questions they had. This was followed by a presentation about the Gnaraloo Feral Animal Control Program (GFACP) by our old friend Mike Butcher from APMS who had also arrived the day before to conduct monthly baiting, shooting and trapping of feral animals at the station. Following the presentations Mike took Jane and Bevan out to Farquhar to show them more about the feral animal work he had been doing. That night we cooked a delicious BBQ dinner of steak, sausages and salad for Jane, Bevan, Mike and Paul. Jane and Bevan left early the next morning as they had a very busy schedule ahead of them. They gave each of us a hat, notepad and bottle opener with the Rangelands logo which was pretty cool. They also provided very positive and encouraging feedback about the program and hopefully we will continue to have the support of Rangelands NRM WA in future years.

Brendan Slade