Question On Notice No. 1724 asked in the Legislative Council on 14 October 2014 by Hon Lynn Maclaren
Question Directed to the: Minister for Mental Health representing the Minister for Environment
Parliament: 39 Session: 1
Question
With regards to the answer to question on notice No. 1466, on 16 September 2014, will the Minister:
(a) provide the names of the persons, and/or companies, that were paid from the $190,600 that was spent on specialist contract staff and operational support costs;
(b) provide details of what the specific tasks, and/or projects, these specialist contract staff were engaged to undertake;
(c) provide details of how much each of these persons, and/or companies, were paid from the $190,600 that was spent on specialist contract staff and operational support costs;
(d) provide details of departmental expenditure under the operational costs that were included in the $190,600;
(e) list and describe the specialist skills that these specialist contract staff possessed had that were not readily available in the department;
(f) provide a list of all available reports and maps prepared by these specialist contract staff; and
(g) advise where each of these reports can be obtained by members of the public?
Answered on 18 November 2014
(a) Existing staff from the (then) Department of Environment and Conservation were seconded to fill these positions on a contract basis. Note that staff with the necessary skills to undertake this project were not available in the department's South West Region, where the project was located.
(b) The tasks included:
· an extensive review of existing knowledge about the biological and ecological requirements of western ringtail possums and habitat characteristics in this region;
· the establishment of 39 field plots and collection of habitat attributes at each plot;
· investigating the relationships and interactions between the habitat attributes and their influence on the distribution of western ringtail possums;
· development of a habitat classification system to quantify and map areas of remnant vegetation in the southern Swan Coastal Plain suitable for western ringtail possum use;
· map preparation; and
· synthesis of the above information into a report.
(c)-(d) Departmental costs included salary and overheads, purchase of necessary materials and vehicle running costs.
(e) Skills required included knowledge of the impacts of habitat fragmentation and connectivity on western ringtail possum, advanced ArcGIS skills, experience in statistical modelling and analysis for ecological systems, field plot design and establishment experience, familiarity with contemporary ecological principles, practices and language and demonstrated well developed report synthesis and writing skills.
(f) The report, which includes maps, is titled 'An assessment of habitat for Western Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus occidentalis) on the southern Swan Coastal Plain (Binningup to Dunsborough)'. Data collected as part of this project are also included in a departmental geographic information system (GIS) format that can be used by staff for map production. Maps included in the report are titled:
· Three habitat categories determined by the Australian Government for western ringtail possum in the southern Swan Coastal Plain (DEWHA, 2009a).
· Area of interest in the southern Swan Coastal Plain covered by the present western ringtail possum habitat assessment and mapping.
· Distribution of western ringtail possum in the southern Swan Coastal Plain from spotlight survey records, including multiple surveys of the same location, conducted between 1986 and 2013 within the area of interest.
· Habitat quality of all polygons in the area of interest determined from vegetation and soil-landform data 1986 and 2013.
· Inferred distribution of peppermint (Agonis flexuosa) within the area of interest.
· Distribution of tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) within the area of interest from the Atlas of Tuart Woodlands (Government of Western Australia, 2003).
· Distribution of 131 polygons with western ringtail possum density data derived from spotlight surveys.
· Five western ringtail possum management zones along the 10km coastal fringe of the Binningup to Dunsborough region in the southern Swan Coastal Plain.
· Habitat suitability map for the Dunsborough management zone.
· Habitat suitability map for the Busselton management zone.
· Habitat suitability map for the Ludlow management zone.
· Habitat suitability map for the Bunbury management zone.
· Habitat suitability map for the Binningup management zone.
(g) A copy of the report was circulated to key stakeholders in April 2014 and is available on request from the Department of Parks and Wildlife.