Interview with Russel Mullet

06 Fire Impact

Russel talks about the impact of the fire on the animals and plants. 

Transcription

like i said it was just one of those um opportunities to get an idea of uh the chronology of the alps you know um yeah for bogong moth for example there’s a bigger study that needs to be done they migrate from Queensland and they come into the high country uh what are the impacts uh you know we were a bit late in measuring the numbers from um uh the earlier arrival of Europeans but uh you know with the the development and the growth of towns along the way uh now the major impacts of bushfires in between Queensland and victoria that’ll be another interesting one to look at and see what numbers arrive um obviously the other important one is the how reliant are the mountain pygmy possums on Bogong moth and whether we can develop some other food sources that assist if those numbers are down you know so it’s that’s a really interesting uh species specific study i suppose you know and obviously we’d like to lead some of that and be heavily involved in it you know they’re our totem animals they’re our uh you know i guess it’s a concern that then you know if their numbers are down how do how to address that and i suppose if the numbers are down and the impacts are coming from Queensland how to address that interstate sort of uh influence of you know what are you doing up there and how can we change what you’re doing so we can keep these numbers arriving and it’s probably no different than migratory birds there dan where you know we’ve got uh agreements with Chinese and Japanese governments around the arrival of some of the rare species in in Australia and um you know if those numbers start to drop how we address that internet nationally with those agreements so you know that’s the sort of stuff that uh we’re only in the early stages of i think