In September 2021, Landcare SA welcomed Deb Laver as the Bushfire Recovery Project Officer for Kangaroo Island (KI). Deb has been a KI resident for over 12 years, and her role is to assist the delivery and provide support to the eight Landcare-Led Bushfire Recovery projects.

Deb comes to us with extensive experience working in the conservation sector, having worked for the Department for Environment and Water for 13 years, with ten of those years as a Park Ranger on KI. In more recent years, Deb has worked with both the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia and Trees for Life supporting the delivery of post-bushfire projects.
Deb has close ties across the environmental sector on KI and has been able to “hit the ground running” in networking with project recipients.

Left: Deb Laver assisting the Kangaroo Island Conservation Landowners Association (KICLA) nest box project with data recording. There have been extensive efforts undertaken to revisit every nest box deployed across the burnt landscape with over 680 nest boxes audited, surveyed and repaired, modified or relocated across 12 fire affected KI properties
(Photo Credit: Topa Petit).

The Landcare Led Bushfire Recovery project has been supported by the Australian Government’s Bushfire Recovery Program for Wildlife and their Habitat.
 

Projects funded as part of the program include:

• Mobilising and supporting a community-led fire recovery initiative for Kangaroo Islands’ threatened flora (Nature Conservation of South Australia).
• Recovering Kangaroo Island’s Birds after Black Summer Wildfires (Birdlife Australia).
• Habitat augmentation, adaptation and survey of bats and pygmy-possums after Kangaroo Island bushfires (Kangaroo Island Conservation Landowners Association).
• Extension of Thermal Assisted Aerial Cull of Feral Pigs on Kangaroo Island (Agriculture Kangaroo Island Inc).
• Islands within an island – invertebrate species of conservation concern in unburnt refugia within the burn scar on Kangaroo Island (South Australian Museum).
• Felixers for Fire Relief – western KI (Kangaroo Island Land For Wildlife Association Inc).
• Use of wireless feral cat trap monitoring and alert system for intensive, broad-scale cat control across fire affected landscapes (Kangaroo Island Landscape Board).
• A Fighting Chance – Advances in invasive predator control to deliver landscape scale benefits for post-fire threatened species recovery (Kangaroo Island Landscape Board).

For further information about the projects or the Landcare-led Bushfire Recovery Program please contact Deb Laver on projectofficer@landcaresa.asn.au.