Minutes of Committee Meeting on 19 June 2011 held at Kezia Purick's Community Meeting Room

1.        Open, welcome

Present:  Heather Boulden, Leisa Baldwin, Stefan Bickelmayer, Jeremy Hemphill              

         Apologies: Jane Moore, Alan Anderson, Gemina Corpus, Penny Wurm, Jo
Vandermark, Ross Trevena, Wayne Bennett.

2       Minutes of general meeting 17 April 2011.  Not approved, no quorum 

3       Business arising from minutes & ongoing issues

• Working Bee 22nd May – thanks to all who participated.
• Tropical Gardens Spectacular

4.         Correspondence:  Out:

·      1 April 11, Expressions of interest for EnvironmeNT Grants for field day April 2012 and to control olive hymenachne submitted

·      21 Apr 11, email to Heritage Grants with application for $13,410.00 to complete Rice Trail.

·      25 Apr 11, email to Andrew Geering attaching Fogg Dam plant list.

·      12 May 11, Full application for EnvironmeNT Grants to control olive hymenachne submitted

·      17 May 11, emails to Tissa (NT Field Nats), Prof. Rick Shine (Sydney Uni), Dr Penny Wurm (CDU), Norm Greenfield & Kristen Appel (P&W) seeking their support for FOFD application for funding for a Field Day in 2012.

·      18 May 11 Full Applications for Field Day EnvironmeNT grant submitted.

·      18 May 11, email to Parks re possible extension of olive hymenachne project

·      19 May 11, email to NRMB seeking extension of olive hymenachne project

·      31 May 11, RSVP that Jeremy would attend the function to meet the Hon. Kim Chance and members of the Aust. Landcare Council on June 8.

·      1 June 11, email to John Bonney, attaching Fogg Dam plant list.

·      9 June 11, email to Inge Tretbar, with information about the walks at Fogg Dam.

Correspondence In:

·        24 Apr 11, email from Andrew Geering requesting a plant list for Fogg Dam.

·        27 Apr 11, email from Karen Moir, acknowledging receipt of application for NT Heritage Grant to complete the Rice Trail.

·        3 May 11, email from Wendy Walsh thanking for our EOI and providing advice to strengthen our Field Day project to full application stage.

·        13 May 11, email from Wendy Welsh, thanking us for the EOI for an EnvironmeNT Grant and inviting to submit an application by 18 May.  Advised of the largest number of EOIs ever received so grants will be most competitive.

·        4 May 11, Network Notes from Territory NRM.

·        16 May 11, email to advise that our EnvironmeNT Grant application for control and eradication of olive hymenachne has been received.

·        17 May 11, email from Jennifer Cunningham, advising that the Junior Ranger activity at Fogg Dam has changed to 22 May and FOFD invited to give a brief talk at 10am about our group and what we do.

·        18 May 11email advising Field day application had been received.

·        18 May 11, email from NRMB – do we want extension of olive hymenachne project

·        25 May 11, letter from Territory Natural Resource Management, granting an extension for our Control & Eradication of Olive Hymenachne to 11 August with final report on 31 August.  There is an additional milestone report due on 31 July.

·        27 May 11, invitation email to meet and greet the Hon. Kim Chance, Chair, Aust. Landcare Council at the Darwin Ski Club on 8 June from 6-7.30pm.

·        1 June 11, email from John Bonney from Batchelor Institute, requesting a plant list for Fogg Dam.

·        7 June 11, email from Inge Tretbar, enquiring about whether the walks at Fogg Dam were open.

5.         Business arising from correspondence: 

·      Heather met with and spoke to Junior Rangers about FOFD.

·      Jeremy attended meeting 8 June at  Ski Club to meet Landcare board members.

6       Newsletter.  

·        Agreed Heather and Leisa would combine to finalise email mail out list

·        Aiming for Issue 2 on 25 June 2011

7.      NRMB grant with P&W Fogg Dam to Control & eradicate olive hymenachne

         Project Milestones:

Verbal interim report given along with photographs on 14 April.

         31 July           Submit Interim report

11 August      Complete project

31 August      Submit final report.                           

8       New NT Environment grant applications – awaiting responses at 19 June.

·      Field Day Sunday 29 April 2011 – seeking $5,000.

Suggestions for cost savings if no funding granted, eg Parks to fund toilets.

Working group membership:  Leisa, Heather,

·      Follow-up NRMB grant to eradicate olive hymenachne – seeking $8.000.

9       Heritage Grant application - seeking $13,410.00 - Rice Trail - awaiting response

· The rice mill at the 14 mile has deteriorated considerably – need photographs.

10     Opening Fogg Dam water & wetlands proposal

·   P&W project to install the sluice gate and dredge open water has been deferred to the dry season next financial year.

·   Bird & open water monitoring  – photo points still to be identified with P&W staff. Awaiting advice on extent of earthworks

11     Donation box & brochure holders – nothing new to report.

12     Finance – from January

         $2,026.80 in fixed deposit.   $1,889.61 in general account.  $88.43 of NRMB grant to be spent. 

13     Memberships:   37 members (24 NT; 5 I/s; 8 OS) 8 NT members haven’t renewed.

14     Other business

·      Tropical Garden Spectacular & Top End Sustainable Living Festival, 4,5 June.

Stall with displays on both days. Obtained 2 new members Michael Barrit, Damien Gavillet) and 34 additions for the FOFD emailing list.  Thanks to Jeremy, Veronica, Jo and Heather who staffed. 

·    Accessibility of Fogg Dam walks -  Heather and Jeremy to find why they are still closed and action re=opening.

·    Availability to spray from air boat over next few months. Jeremy to seek volunteers for this.

15    Next meeting:  Sunday 25 September, possibly following working bee at Fogg Dam  

Meeting closed at 3.15 pm, followed by talk of Dr Michael Crossland of Sydney University Tropical Ecology Unit, Middle Point - summary below.

Summary of issues to follow up.

Dr Michael Crossland: - 7 people now working out of Middle Point facility.

·      Chemical affect toadpoles = freshly crushed toadpoles into water

o   Existing toadpoles disperse away, of those hatching: some from eggs die, some are retarded

o   Native tadpoles not affected

·      Toad eggs attract toadpoles but not native tadpoles

·      Green tree frog tadpoles in proximity of toadpoles reduces toadpole growth and kills some.

Working with Queensland U to fid what the chemicals are – tricky as concentrations of chemicals is low. Extracting chemicals and testing effect.

·      Provided a recent paper : The ecological impact of invasive cane toads on tropical snakes: Field data do not support laboratory based predictions by Greg Brown, Rick Shine and Ben Phillips in Ecology, 92(2), 2011, pp422-431

·      Essentially says prediction and reality may be significantly different, ie  the impact of toads on snake species predicted to be vulnerable to cane toads has not been borne out. At Fogg Dam, some species have increased significantly in number rather than declining, eg death adders. Perhaps the influence of declining goanna numbers taking a snake predator out.

·      Although no King Browns have been seen for over two years, their numbers dropped dramatically in 2003, two years before the cane toad arrived, reasons not understood.

·      Location significant, ie death adder encounters at Fogg dam have risen yet closer to Adelaide River crossing on the Arnhem Highway, large numbers have died as a result of biting cane toads.