Protecting the Scott Coastal Plain 2025 -2027
The Scott Coastal Plain (SCP) is a unique and special place loved to those that farm there and those that travel and holiday in the national park. It is also a special place for the Wadandi-Pibulmun people since ancient times and is home to threatened ecological communities of both flora and fauna (including the Australasian Bittern). It is essential that this area of high biodiversity and cultural value and highly productive farm land is preserved and cared for.
Feral pigs pose an increasingly large threat to the biodiversity and cultural values of the Scott Coastal Plain. In particular the Gingilup-Jasper wetland system which is a nationally important and culturally significant wetland, the whole of the Scott River system which is a registered Aboriginal heritage site and the Kybra rock site which is a very significant and special registered Aboriginal-heritage site.
Over the last 3 years the LBVPMG & LBLCDC have been implementing a State NRM funded strategic monitoring and trapping program that resulted in 1500 pigs (688 adults) removed over the 3 years. Our new project will continue this work.
These results demonstrate that with adequate, long-term/on-going resourcing, the feral pig population in the SCP could be monitored and managed with their impacts on the SCP minimised. Therefore this proposed project is essential to ensure the continuity of control and protection of the SCP.
The project will support the Lower Blackwood Vertebrate Pest Management Group (LBVPMG) to work collaboratively with landholders, plantation companies, DBCA, DPIRD, Traditional Owners and local government to undertake priority feral pig control work to protect the Scott Coastal Plain (SCP).
This consists of 6-month trapping blocks in strategic locations per year for three years supported by a monitoring program. Key to the program is working closely with landholders in the area to ensure that pig sightings and damage are recorded to identify hot-spot areas for the field officers to focus their work.
The LCDC will be supporting the LBVPMG field officers through managing and reporting on the data collected, developing and extending supporting resources for our community, facilitating workshops and working with the landholders in the Scott Coastal Plain area to maximise the impact of the project across the region.
A large part of managing the feral pig problem is dependent on the Landholder’s awareness of the problem.
The Lower Blackwood team has put together a management guide full of valuable information for all landholders:
You can read our latest report here:
Pig Sighting Register
Although our key focus is currently on the Scott River area we are still keen to collect data on any other sightings in the catchment – so let us know if you see anything.
This project is supported through funding from the Shire of Augusta Margaret River, the Shire of Nannup, and the State Natural Resource Management Program, and is facilitated through a continuing partnership with the Lower Blackwood LCDC the Lower Blackwood Vertebrate Pest Management Group.
