Minutes of Meeting Held on Wed 8 April 09

Lesley - Perth Zoo

Zoos internationally are moving towards a conservation focus rather than display.

Perth Zoo supports wild protection in Africa and Indonesia, 100% donations are sent.

Educational programs:

Incursions: are rare, DEC Bushrangers have had incursions at High Schools

Perth Zoo is a quarantine station so animals cannot be taken out of the zoo.

Excursions: Poster available for education programs

Water Corporation: Louisa Kinnear Water Forever Project

Invited comment on the Project plan from FOTE Inc. Members

Moving from Water supply to Water Conservation strategies –

Retailer of water/waste water ridding cf. Dept. of Water who manage resource supply (and license Water Corp)

Water Corp has most customer contact so becomes the conduit for conservation information; also has license obligation to do this.

Powerpoint

Water Forever extrapolated 50 yrs and looked at supply : demand gap of 365 Gigalitre

1Gl = 4,000 households per year, 1 household 280,000 litres per year

Councils happy to keep watering from groundwater whereas in Melbourne (lacking groundwater) public spaces are brown and this has disrupted sports competitions markedly.

Reduce, Recycle and we’ll still need water from elsewhere.

Energy issues were discussed as contributing to viabilities of choices.

Seed Collecting – Richard Snowball

Doomsday Vault in Norway

Protecting a large variety of species is good for:

Medicinal research

Robustness of cultivars

Book recommendation: Fivecontinents by NT Vavilov history of  life of seed collecting

Australian legume forage rangeland plants are being investigated now for future agricultural purposes.

Here infertile soils especially nitrogen, and acid at depth – plants have adapted to this.

Other places in the world like this are rare.

4 Roles of Seed Centre

1. Acquisition/collecting
   1. To ensure representative sampling need 50 plants’ seeds per location
   2. GPS is handy to record locations of plants for future reference
   3. If collecting overseas ensure you can bring it back before you can try
2. Characterisation
   1. Describing and looking at potential for agriculture, etc
3. Conservation
   1. Aluminium foil envelopes hold dried seeds
   2. Seeds will last for 10-10,000 years
4. Distribution of seed around the world

Piney Lakes Ben Kelly City of Melville

Environmental Education Ctr

Education for sustainability National Action plan email for link

1.      Aust Government leadership

2.      Reorient education system to sustainability

3.      executive level training in business

4.      harness community spirit to act

Social, political and economic links. Sustainability links all those things.

Piney Lakes built 2001 Primary school to senior citz. Focus on sustainability

50ha regen bush and reveg area (old pine plantation)

Fully self-sustaining building illustrates possibilities in energy, water collection and waste management

School excursions for middle primary up though TAFE and Uni

            Focus on insects and lake creatures

Biodiverity and habitat

Think about your local environment

School holiday programs

            Snakes, raptors, native animals, building tour

Millions spent and the resource has been built with a dedicated env. Education officer

Aust Assoc Environ Educators connections

Living Smart 7 day (1 day per week) program $20