FEATURE


finch. We are of course trying our best to work on the fire problem. Getting all the various land owners, stake holders and organisations, who each have their own agenda, to work together is an enormous and difficult task which in all honesty will probably not be achieved without Federal Government involvement. However, we are plugging away and in some small way are making a little progress by working with the local authorities and land owners. We have a joint research programme into the effects of fire on the Gouldian finch with the local department of Ecology and Conservation scientist which will


produce vital information as it matures. We also publicise the problem and are trying to get the Federal Government interested. It has been estimated that 8% of Australia’s carbon output is created by wild fires!!!! You would think they should be very interested! And, for our overseas followers, imagine an area the size of half of Europe, or the whole Eastern states of USA going up in flames every year. The problem is that Australia is so big and Gouldian finch country so wild that nobody notices. What I have not covered so far is whether aviculture could act as a potential gene bank and perhaps a


BIRD SCENE 45


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