336 Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities
In most circumstances the majority of actions resulting from a recovery team
meeting are tasked to the project officer, regardless of the number of species
involved, and in some situations the project officer is responsible for two or more
recovery teams. To counteract this, and to help spread the load, project officers and
recovery teams turn to volunteers for assistance in the field.
South Australian volunteer organisations
South Australia can be proud of the contributions that non-government
organisations (NGOs) and volunteer community groups have made to threatened
plant recovery, as the following examples indicate:
● (^) The Threatened Plant Action Group (TPAG) was formed in the mid-1990s
with the specific objective of undertaking and implementing recovery actions
for threatened plant species in South Australia. The group has been
instrumental in kick-starting several threatened plant projects across South
Australia. Many of the projects commenced by the group have been adopted by
DEWNR or other organisations, and remain active. Although TPAG’s current
membership base is small (<20), with much of its focus now on species and sites
closer to Adelaide, the group continues to be pro-active in seeking and
attracting funding for on-ground actions at numerous threatened f lora sites.
Because of their record of being able to achieve success through on-ground
action, the TPAG model has been used to establish a similar group in Tasmania
in 2008 (Threatened Plants Tasmania, http://tpt.org.au/)..) The latter group is
now actively involved in the conservation and monitoring of threatened plants
at numerous sites across Tasmania, and one of its aims is to involve the
community in the recovery process.
● (^) Trees For Life (TFL) is another unique South Australian organisation, with a
35-year history and a 7000-strong membership including an estimated 1800
volunteers (A. Hurren pers. comm. 2016). Originally formed for the sole
purpose of growing native plants for revegetation, the NGO soon saw the need
to expand into the field of bushcare, and subsequently the subsidiary Bush For
Life program was formed in 1994 (TFL 2016). TFL proudly claim to have
propagated more than 35 million indigenous plants for farmers and
revegetation practitioners. It currently has 318 bushcare sites (TFL 2016)
covering 4300 ha and around 1200 Bush For Life volunteers across the state.
The organisation now manages sites for 28 nationally threatened species and
ecological communities (A. Hurren pers. comm. 2016). In 2011, it entered into
an agreement with DEWNR’s Natural Resources Northern and Yorke Region
to provide maintenance and monitoring of threatened plant sites, and their
army of volunteers is drawn upon to assist with this task.