Latest news with #Peel-HarveyBiosecurityGroup
West Australian
4 days ago
- General
- West Australian
Clever Brunswick farmer turns the table on foxes with chicken coop creation
A clever Brunswick farmer has turned the table on foxes using a new chicken coop creation to lure the predatory pest into traps. In the past four months Brunswick landholder Mike Jack has managed to catch four foxes without any kind of bait, using the foxes' natural behaviour against it. Mr Jack's hand-built chicken coop has been designed to be fox proof — impossible to dig under or break into — and is fitted with an automatic door so the chooks can put themselves to bed each night. However, the coop's best feature is a custom slot for a trap to fit into. With a few star pickets for stability, each evening Mr Jack opens the trap door leaving foxes to think the coop is ripe for the picking. 'They sneak around the pen and lo and behold — there's a nice hole in the side. They can't help themselves,' he said. 'It's logical. I was thinking about how I wanted to bait the trap, but most people use a dead chook or something like that. I didn't want anything stinking up the place.' With the foxes caught alive and there being no need for bait, the trap is humane and had no ill effects on his hens or egg-laying, Mr Jack said. He told the Reporter he was concerned the trapped foxes would be an added stress to his chooks, but he has seen no change in the chicken's behaviour. 'They don't seem to care,' he said. Mr Jack sourced the trap from Peel-Harvey Biosecurity Group after seeing it at a local agricultural show. 'I was at the Harvey or Waroona show, saw PHBG's tent, and noticed the fox trap — it was longer and better quality than most of what you see out there,' he said. As a recognised biosecurity group, PHBG offers a free lending library of pest control equipment to help landholders tackle invasive species besides foxes, including rabbits, feral pigs and weeds. 'I asked if I could buy one, but when I said I was a local landholder, PHBG offered to drop it off, for free — that was brilliant,' Mr Jack said.
West Australian
4 days ago
- General
- West Australian
Gardeners given helping hand to get banksias and undergrowth growing with native seedling giveaway
Gardeners have been given a helping hand to get banksias and undergrowth in the ground with the Peel Harvey Catchment Council's native seedling giveaway in Lake Clifton. The community was out in force last month to collect a bounty of native plants from the conservation group as part of the annual giveaway. Along with the giveaway, there were displays from some of the region's leading environmental groups, including the Mandurah Environment and Heritage Group and the Peel-Harvey Biosecurity Group. The event also had a special talk from renowned Australian botanist Alex George, the author of several books about banksias. PHCC coordinator of land conservation Corrine Duncan said the banksia and tuart woodlands, which are endemic to the region, are vulnerable. 'This is a threatened ecological community, which means that it's rare and it's declining very rapidly,' she said. 'Because of that, we're also losing a lot of native species that depend on these trees, ringtail possums, for example, so it's really critical that we keep getting these seedlings back in the landscape here. 'And, because we have such a high rabbit (population) here, they're decimating seedlings that grow naturally, so by putting these back in the landscape, protecting them with tree guards, we hope that we can start bringing back that understorey and ecological values.' Ms Duncan said it was their seventh time running the event, which had grown year by year. 'It's really important for us to keep reinvigorating the community and to keep the community connected and inspired, to keep going with restoration,' she said.
