New pastoral ranger team in Yandeyarra to care for culture, country and environment.

Greening Australia has partnered with the Yandeyarra community and pastoral station in Western Australia to establish a ranger team that will look after Yandeyarra culture, country and environment.

The goals of the new ranger program were developed in December with landscape ecologist Dr Hugh Pringle, who worked collaboratively with the Yandeyarra community to support land management planning using the well-recognised ‘Ecosystem Management Understanding’ approach.

“The Yandeyarra people have a strong commitment to good management of their land. The community want to protect the flora and fauna on their lease for future generations, but they are also hoping to develop a regenerative cattle grazing enterprise,” says Ian Hayes, Station Manager.

“I am really pleased with the amount of interest there has been in the ranger program from the community and pastoral station. It’s been great to see how many people want to be part of building a stronger community, culture, environment and cattle business,” says Pip Short, Greening Australia’s Senior Project Officer.

The first week of on-country ranger work will kick-off once the Pilbara heat dies down, with a focus on local weeds, led by Jo Kuiper from the Pilbara Mesquite Management Committee. This will be followed by a week-long survey to map the extent of weeds on the station.

The ranger program will be run in ten, one-week blocks over the next 12 to 18 months and will focus on a range of different topics including fire, local fauna surveys and monitoring, local plant and seed collection, and protection of cultural sites.

Funding for the program was awarded last year by the State Natural Resource Management Program under the ‘Community Capability Grant Scheme’.

If you are interested in finding out more about this project, or any of Greening Australia’s other programs, please contact Pip Short at [email protected] or jump onto their Facebook page at “Greening Australia – Pilbara”.