Help call to bail out reserve

By Sarah Schwager
BAYLES Fauna Reserve’s need for more volunteers has forced the park to hold a public meeting later this month to discuss its future management options.
Bayles Fauna Reserve committee treasurer Pat Whittle said the park urgently needed more volunteers if it was to continue running the way it had been intended.
“We’re only a small group,” Ms Whittle said.
“We’ve just got to get more help.”
The park’s committee of management, along with the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), will chair the meeting to explore ways the community can be involved in the park’s operation, including animal care and vegetation maintenance.
Ms Whittle said the young caretakers who had been managing the park had been ‘fabulous’ and she hoped they would be able to stay on.
“We can’t afford to pay anyone,” she said.
“We want this to be something for the public to drop in and bring their kids.
“Now it’s an honesty sort of thing.
“We don’t want them to have pay beyond the donation.”
But longtime volunteer Vic Walker said charging visitors might be the reality in the future.
“It’s always been our concept that people come in by donation,” he said.
“Maybe the time has come that that is no longer possible.”
He said the park had been enjoyed by generations of visitors.
“The park is very much part of our community and it follows that members of our community should put their hands up to ensure the reserve is managed for the future generations,” Mr Walker said.
DSE land use planning officer Emily Phillips said it was time people got involved in the running of their local nature reserve.
“This park is in the community’s hands and its future is up to the residents of Bayles and surrounding areas,” she said.
“There has been some great work done by volunteers over the past few decades, but more help is needed to ensure the park’s natural and heritage values are protected.”
The park contains patches of endangered swamp scrub and swampy gum woodland with some trees up to 150 years old, and is home to the nationally threatened southern brown bandicoot.
Committee of management president Bruce Bell said a management plan was needed, and community consultation was the first step.
“We need to know what the Bayles community wants from its fauna park,” Mr Bell said.
“From there we will work with the DSE to make it happen.”
The meeting will start at 7.30pm on Wednesday, 18 January in the Bayles Public Hall on Kooweerup Road with all people invited.
For more information contact Bruce Bell on 5997 1216 or Emily Phillips on 9296 4535.