Innovation & Invention in Biodiversity Conservation

Wednesday 16 May 2012, Bradley Forum

Jointly presented by the National Trust of South Australia and The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre at UniSA

The Heritage Festival for 2012 will be themed Innovation & Invention, and in celebration of the event the National Trust of South Australia in conjunction with the Bob Hawke Ministerial Centre will proudly present this seminar, offering insights into exciting new developments and approaches to natural heritage and biodiversity conservation.

Program

• Dr Russell Sinclair, University of Adelaide: 'Repeat Photography' the technology used in the Koonamore Project - Presentation (pdf format) video presentation
• Ann Prescott: The Watiparinga Story - 1st Management Plan for a Conservation Reserve in SA
• Associate Professor David Bruce, School of Natural and Built Environment, UniSA, Spatial science: tools to assist in landscape conservation - from sextant and theodolite to terrestrial scanner, GPS and satellite tracking - Presentation (pdf format)
• Glenn Williams, National Trust of South Australia: 'Trail Camera' innovative technology used for tracking and recording - Presentation (pdf format)

Speaker abstracts
Dr Russell Sinclair, formerly a Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide discusses the University's "TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve" on Koonamore Station in the mid-north of South Australia. The Reserve is the focus of the longest running, regular, arid land vegetation monitoring program of its type in Australia and quite possibly in the world. The foresight to establish a comprehensive number of photo monitoring points in conjunction with a data collection template was extremely innovative for its time.

Ann Prescott, botanist, community educator and well-known author of "It's Blue with Five Petals: A Wildflower Guide to the Adelaide Region" reveals aspects of the story behind the "Restoration of Grassy Woodlands - Watiparinga Reserve Management Plan", written by her mentor Enid Robertson and published by the National Trust of South Australia. The "Restoration of Grassy Woodlands - Watiparinga Reserve Management Plan" was innovative as the first nature reserve conservation management plan written in South Australia.

Associate Professor David Bruce, spatial scientist and in particular remote sensing and positioning specialist, will be speaking on innovations in spatial science as tools for landscape conservation and the inventions that followed, from sextant and theodolite to GPS and satellite tracking. David will explain how the revolution in global positioning is combining with 4D capture of natural resource information for storage, analysis and modelling in relational database management systems.

Glenn Williams, Natural Heritage Manager NTSA, talks about wildlife monitoring and the use of state-of-the-art equipment to 'passively' record observations for later verification and identification. By utilising the invention of infra-red, motion-activated trail cameras and high-frequency bat detectors for example, volunteers are able to 'value-add' to data collection about the presence of many wildlife species.

While the views presented by speakers within the Hawke Centre public program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University of South Australia or The Hawke Centre, they are presented in the interest of open debate and discussion in the community and reflect our themes of:strengthening our democracy - valuing our diversity - and building our future.

The copying and reproduction of any transcripts within the Hawke Centre public program is strictly forbidden without prior arrangements.