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Name:Terri
Title/role:Threatened Species Biodiversity Officer, Land for Wildlife Extension Officer with the Department of Sustainability and Environment in Epsom
Describe your typical day
My job changes all the time. One day I might be looking for a threatened species out in the field and another day I might be visiting a landholder assessing his property for Land for Wildlife status. I also run education programs.
How did you get started in your job? What was your initial training?
I completed the Conservation and Land Management Course at Bendigo TAFE. I started in my position after working with members of the Biodiversity Group at the Deparment of Sustainability and Environment as a work experience student.
What has helped you to get to your current position?
Doing lots of work experience and research, and completing any field work that the Biodiversity staff asked me to do.
What keeps you motivated?
I just love getting out into the field and seeing things. I also enjoy working with the community and other departmental and non-government staff.
What is the most interesting thing you have seen in your job?
The research into different threatened species increases our knowledge which helps to protect them. I also help people by giving advice on how to manage their land for the enhancement and protection of native flora and fauna.
What advice do you have for students still at school?
Do as much research as you can. It is good to go out and look at things and see it in real life. If you can do as much volunteer work with people that are working in the environment field as possible it will help enormously.
DPI preserving genetic diversity
Seeds from wild and domesticated plants around the globe are housed at the seedbank nursery at the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Horsham. Ancient and modern varieties of peas, lentils, chickpeas, faba beans and canola, are packed away in a climate-controlled room.
Curator Bob Redden said the DPI was collecting, storing and analysing traditional varieties because of their diversity and their long evolution in many thousands of different ecological conditions dating from ancient crop distributions.
Bob said the seeds could hold the key to feeding a growing global population into the future. Breeding plants to suit Australia's environment would ensure the nation had a reliable food source.
“In one crop, there may be thousands of different plant types which have adapted to these different local environments. The genetic diversity of these crops makes them a gold mine for plant breeding. In these gene pools there is enormous potential to deal with climatic stresses”, he said.
The seedbank, which soon will also store the Australian collections of summer oilseeds and legumes, has one of the biggest national collections of oilseeds and legumes in the world.
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