From today's Age - further to the Crikey posting a few days back...
Brawl over swans cull
* * Adam Morton *
* July 25, 2008 - 12:24PM
A brawl has broken out after the State Government issued East Gippsland
farmers permits to shoot 90 black swans that had moved into paddocks in
search of food.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment has confirmed it issued
five permits to farmers allowing them to shoot swans that had abandoned
the Gippsland Lakes after the seagrasses they feed on were killed off,
in part by algal blooms.
The department's executive director of biodiversity, Kimberley Dripps,
said swans were eating crops and competing with livestock for feed.
A farmer whose property borders Bairnsdale's Macleod Morass State Game
Reserve was granted two permits because swans were "eating, fouling and
trampling" a germinating lucerne crop, she said.
"The crop was eaten to bare ground, representing a significant financial
loss to the farmer and possible public health risk.
"In this instance, the farm manager had attempted to scare the birds,
with no success."
She said the department only considered killing wildlife as a last
resort. There were thousands of swans in and around Gippsland Lakes, and
they were not endangered, she said.
Environment groups accused the department of issuing permits to kill
wildlife while failing to address the appalling health of Gippsland
Lakes, which have been hurt by the drought.
"There is a culture within the East Gippsland (department office) that
is not particularly conservation minded, and that's been an ongoing
problem," Gippsland Environment Group spokeswoman Louise Crisp said.
Ms Crisp said the Bairnsdale farmer lived on the fringe of
internationally recognised wetlands and could take more measures to
protect his property, including installing fencing or wind flaps.
But she said Gippsland authorities and the State Government were to
blame for not addressing the cause of the problem
"There is an ecological disaster here, the swans are one of the symptoms
and the (department) is responding to that by shooting them," she said.
Jill Redwood from Environment East Gippsland said: "This is the
beginning of the end for the lakes, but going out and slaughtering the
wildlife is not the solution."
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