Public comment is being sought on a new 10-year management plan proposed for more than a million hectares of parks and reserves in the Wheatbelt region. The proposed plan covers 728 existing reserves of natural vegetation and is bounded by Dalwallinu, Cranbrook, Ongerup, York, Wandering, Darkan, Yellowdine and Lake King. The reserves include valuable conservation areas such as Dryandra Woodland which is home to Western Australia’s mammal emblem, the numbat. Almost half of the reserves are less than 100 hectares. The two largest reserves, Karroun Hill and Jilbadji nature reserves within the Great Western Woodlands, together make up more than half a million hectares. The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions has prepared the proposed management plan on behalf of the Conservation and Parks Commission.…

Efforts are continuing to protect the western ground parrot, following a bushfire that burnt through some of the critically endangered birds' habitat this month. Lightning strikes on January 13 caused a bushfire in Cape Arid National Park on the south coast, which burnt 6,300 hectares. Western ground parrots only exist in the wild in Cape Arid National Park and the adjacent Nuytsland Nature Reserve. In spring 2018, five parrots were caught in Cape Arid National Park - fitted with GPS collars - and returned to the wild so their movements could be studied as part of a recovery program led by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA). A ground search by DBCA last week located one of these five birds alive, and signals…