Group: Tilpa Pest Management Group
When was your group formed? The Tilpa Pest Management Group was formed about 5 years ago as a sub group of The Tilpa Community Committee group.
Why did your group form?The Tilpa Group formed to formalise what individuals and small community groups had already been implementing with fox strength baiting on the western side of the river. About 4 years ago the eastern side of the river came on board with the Tilpa Group. Forming the group has combined the efforts of everyone in the community to have a wholistic management of pest species.
What has your group been up to?
Initially starting with fox strength baiting the group has now moved on to dog strength baiting to challenge the wild dogs that have escalated as a result of the 2010,2011 and 2012 flooding where disruption was caused to the dog fence and dogs followed the flooding of the Paroo, Cuttaburra, Bulloo and Darling River systems. As a result of this a much greater numbers of dogs were noticed from 2014 onwards encouraging the Tilpa group to take action. The Tilpa group and Wanaaring Group were approached to participate in an aerial baiting trial by Bruce Duncan who had been employed in the position of Western Division Wild Dog coordinator funded by the AWI and hosted through the NSW Farmers. The lessons learnt in implementing the trial have formed the basis for the aerial baiting program that still preforms over the LLS Western Division today.
About two years ago the Tilpa Group self-funded a dog trapper to work, as required, on Stations in the area. This has been implemented alongside the ground and aerial baiting and using all three techniques has provided a consistent and active dog management strategy in the area. Part of the groups long term goals is to assist in developing a model that can attract collaborative support.
The LLS Western has also secured funding for a variety of pest management strategies, one of which will be a wild dog collaring program. This will provide invaluable information on wild dogs that will enable better wild dog management. The Tilpa group will use this opportunity for gaining better wild dog knowledge which will benefit the community and help develop future strategies in the Western Division to tackle dog problems.