Fishes, Frogs, Farms and People

Gunning District Landcare [GDL] is working to recover from the brink of extinction two beautiful little creatures that are found in our local area, the Southern Pygmy Perch [SPP] and the Yellow-spotted Bell Frog. 

Southern Pygmy Perch Photos courtesy Luke Pearce

Yellow-spotted Bell Frog

A lot of our activities this year have been part of a strategy aimed at restoring our waterways and farmlands so that they are great for stock, great for wildlife and great for people too.  We know that when we have healthy natural waterways endangered species like these little perches and frogs have a much better chance.  And they are not the only beneficiaries - our sheep and cattle, our farms, our economy and our environment are also winners.

Recovery Action Plan for Southern Pygmy Perch

We have just fired the starter’s gun on work to develop a local recovery action plan for SPP in our region.  This work is being led by our SPP team comprising committee members Scott Keyworth, John Edwards and Vince Heffernan with DPI Fisheries Manager Luke Pearce supported by our coordinator, Ms Helen Ward.

The SPP team is also advised by three CSIRO/academia fish scientists [aka "The Three Wise Men"] with the most involved of these being Associate Professor Mark Lintermans [who discovered the SPP alive and well in Blakney Creek in 2005 while searching for something else].  The SPP team met in Gunning recently to start work on our local SPP Recovery Action Plan.

Your GDL subscriptions and taxes at work:  From left, Scott Keyworth, Vince Heffernan, Luke Pearce, John  Edwards and Assoc Prof Mark Lintermans meeting in Gunning to begin work on the Southern Pygmy Perch Recovery Action Plan

GDL has engaged Mark to do much of the necessary work.  In essence, Mark will be

1.       identifying the best sites for preservation and restoration work;

2.      finding any further small remnant populations if he is able to do so [similar to a small population found to our surprise and delight in Oolong Creek near Dalton earlier this year];

3.      recommending the best ways to involve land managers in sensitive areas so they can use management techniques that allow for continued production as well as preserving the SPP; and

4.      recommending where our limited funds for the construction of a riffle pond or two might best be used if this is a useful thing for us to do.

We also expect Mark to be involved in various community engagement/education activities.  As well as guiding our work over the next few years, the plan will be a very good document to support further funding applications.

While Mark has been engaged by Gunning District Landcare his activities will, almost certainly, go beyond our area and at least some of his recommendations will have wider application.  We have invited neighbouring networks to be involved in this project and have had very encouraging responses from them.

We are both excited and optimistic about this project.  There are very few local recovery action plans in existence and our advisers encourage us that we are on the right track with this.

Is there a gender balance issue here.  The SPP team at a local Meadow Creek property.  The cataract you see behind the group is a very effective barrier to Carp and Redfin which have brought the native perch to the brink of extinction.  Mark will be exploring the very real possibility that the upstream reaches of this waterway will be a really great place for Southern Pygmy Perch.