Stanley Vale Merino Stud - News & Views

Rabbits on the agenda

17 July 2015

Rabbits are Australia's most environmentally destructive pest. It takes less than one rabbit per hectare to prevent the successful regeneration of many of Australia’s common native trees and they cost Victorians alone approximately $ 31 million annually in lost agricultural production. Inaction is not an option; collaboration, underpinned by the latest science, is imperative.

The Victorian Rabbit Action Network is holding the Victorian Rabbit Management Conference: Connecting knowledge and know-how towards more effective community action on rabbits on Friday 14 August 2015 in Melbourne. It will be the first rabbit conference since 1958.

National Rabbit Facilitator for the MLA-supported Invasive Animals CRC Michael Reid said while rabbit numbers are not at the plague proportions seen in the past, Australia can never become complacent about rabbit control.

"The problem with rabbits is they breed like rabbits, and we should not become complacent as to how bad things can get. Two rabbits can become 184 rabbits in a matter of 18 months if conditions are right," he said.

The conference aims to:

bring together community, industry, government and scientific expertise promote where the gains are being made in rabbit management and the planning approaches that are proving to be useful promote what mapping systems are being used and how people can work together to make better use of these systems launch a new small grants scheme to support and promote community innovation and collaboration towards more effective action on rabbits support networking and learning through presentations, posters, a trade expo, and an interactive session where participants can share their knowledge and ideas

Information and registration go to www.rabbitaction.com

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