Two issues:
1. Why kill the moths/light pollution.
There was a fascinating talk by Prof. Gerhard Eisenbeis of
Johannes Gutenberg Universitat in Mainz, Germany, to the
urban ecology forum run by ARCUE in Melbourne on 24th July.
Briefly he reckons increased night illumination is having
major effects on insects and can prove substantial
differences between types of lamps. He also recommends
lamps which are shaped to cast the light only into the
relevant space (cheaper, less greenhouse gas, and less bad
for species biodiversity).
Note also Andrew Taylor's posting of 10/5/02:
>From http://www.fmnh.org/museum_info/press/press_birds.htm
Turning off building lights reduces bird window-kill by 83%
2. 1080/sodium fluoroacetate
The NRA is now called the Australian Pesticides & Veterinary
Medicines Authority (with a footnote that it is the National
Registration Authority for Agricultural and Veterinary
Chemicals).
The scope document of their review of 1080 is at:
http://www.apvma.gov.au/chemrev/1080_scope.pdf
It says the draft report is expected to be released in
December 2003. I hope it will address the misuse of this
chemical (eg. poisoning Quolls as "collateral damage" after
felling timber) and the tremendous (?) value of having it to
protect the Hooded Plover, Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat,
Superb Lyrebirds etc.
Michael Norris
PS Hoping someone keeps an eye on the APVMA site for all of
us !
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
