Nature Conservation Council NSW
NCC are the leading advocates for nature in New South Wales, representing more than 150 community organisations with a combined membership of over 60,000 individuals. NCC campaigns to protect our forests and oceans, control land clearing, restore rivers and wetlands to health and promote clean renewable energy.
Resources of interest: NCC’s site provides submission guidelines for many current environmental policy issues.
NCC Bushfire Program
Nature Conservation Council’s Bushfire Program aims to ensure that all Bushfire Management activity is ecologically sustainable while protecting life and property. The program has been actively involved in fire management, bushfire education and advocacy for sustainable land policy since 1979.
Resources of interest: The Bushfire Program pages contain proceedings of recent Bushfire Conferences and a range of fire and ecology resources.
Hotspots Fire Project
The Hotspots Fire Project is a NSW training program which provides landholders and land managers with the skills and knowledge needed to actively and collectively participate in fire management planning and implementation for the protection and enhancement of biodiversity conservation. Hotspots is delivered through the coordinated efforts of the NSW Rural Fire Service and the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.
Resources of interest: The Hotspots site includes valuable resources that aim to provide land and fire managers, landholders and communities with regionally specific information about vegetation communities, fire ecology and fire management.
Firesticks is an Indigenous led network and aims to re-invigorate the use of cultural burning by facilitating cultural learning pathways to fire and land management. It is an initiative for Indigenous and non- Indigenous people to look after country, share their experiences and collectively explore ways to achieve their goals. The project is delivered by the Nature Conservation Council in partnership with several Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) and Local Aboriginal Land Councils in northern NSW.
Resources of interest: The Firesticks site has many stories of current cultural fire practices in northern NSW and contains several related resources including a Fire Planning Guide to support communities making their own fire management plans.
Fire Ecology and Biodiversity – Uni of Melbourne blog
This academic blog belongs to University of Melbourne’s School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences department. It showcases student research projects related to fire and the department’s publications. There is also information on work/volunteer opportunities with the department.
Resources of interest: For those interested in hands-on experience the University offers field work volunteering opportunities.
Association for Fire Ecology
The AFE is an international organisation of professionals and academics dedicated to improving knowledge on fire and land management. Their website contains information on wildfire-related policies, and the AFE’s certification programs, journals, and relevant conferences worldwide.
Resources of interest: The AFE website has a page dedicated to position papers published by the organisation. These peer reviewed papers provide synthesis on the best available information related to fire ecology issues.
Northern Rivers Fire and Biodiversity Consortium
NR FABCON serves as a network for land managers and stakeholders in the Northern Rivers region of NSW to coordinate a landscape level approach to fire and biodiversity management. Their website provides information on their members’ latest projects and achievements.
Resources of interest: Their resources page has useful links to fact sheets, reports, and papers. They also have a page listing their current stakeholders, with URLs to the stakeholders’ website where available.
Working on the Wild Side
This blog is maintained by Bronwyn Hradsky, of University of Melbourne’s School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences. The blog has a very useful section on camera-trap identification that Hradsky has used in her research projects.
Resources of interest: Hradsky’s blog has a whole page showing the researcher’s collection of image references for mammal camera-trap surveys. Images are marked with tell-tale signs for identifying certain species.