We protect what we love

FRIDAY 07.04.2023.

Good morning, good Friday and a happy long weekend to our wonderful community!

We hope your long-weekend adventures are full of outdoor time, good weather and even better company. I plan on spending a bit of time south of Sydney in Dharawal country - hiking Kamay Botany Bay National Park with a friend and a long cycle through Royal National Park. Hilary is currently in lutriwita, about to hike the Overland Track - an 80(ish) km multi-day trail. I've already nominated her to write about it when she's back, so get excited for that! Fingers crossed the weather is as good as it was when I was there (which is apparently very rare). Wherever you are in this world, tag us in your weekend adventures - we'd love to see what you're getting up to.

Cradle Mountain/tommeginne country, where Hilary is heading. Pic is from my November 2022 adventure.

In this week's newsletter, we're officially launching the FWP Camp, which is scheduled to take place in June on beautiful Gunaikurnai and Taungurung country. We're also introducing you to a few more conservation dogs, including the work that they do and some conservation detection dog programs in Australia. Finally, we also introduce our Trail Chat #12 guest - Aubri Drake. Whether you're in a camp chair, your deck chair, your couch, desk or floor mat, we hope you enjoy this week's read!

🐶 🏃🏽‍♀️ 🏕️

FWP CAMP: EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENT & EMPOWERMENT

June 2023,Gunaikurnai and Taungurung country

Over three nights and four days, FWP camp will combine trail running and positive environmental activism. We will be joined by athletes, activists, leaders and overall inspiring humans so that together we can be more engaged in advocating to protect wild places.

The camp will kick off on the afternoon of Thursday 1st of June, and wrap on Sunday 4th in the afternoon. We'll call a comfortable and warm lodge at Mt Hotham home for the four days, and get out on the trails for hiking and running between interactive, interesting and inspiring workshops and presentations. Considering the snow season kicks off the following weekend, snowman building might even be on the agenda! ⛄️❄️

We are very excited to have Coralie Fleming, Cam Walker, Blake Hose and Calumn Hockey among the group of mentors who will be joining us. Registration is currently open to FWP members and will be available to the wider community soon.

There are fifteen places available on camp, and three pricing options - waged, unwaged and scholarship. Firstly, waged ($750pp) is for people in sustainable employment that have the means to pay the full fee. Unwaged ($500pp) is for students and people working part-time, or are under financial difficulty. And finally, there are 3 scholarship positions available ($0pp) for people who would like to attend the camp but do not have the financial means to do so, or are from an underrepresented group in the trail and endurance community. Applications will be assessed by the camp organisers, and allocated to three individuals who they feel would benefit most from the experience. More information regarding scholarships will be provided once Camp FWP goes live to the public. 

If you're not already an FWP Member, sign up today and we'll send you the registration form! Otherwise, pop the dates in the diary, start saving your pennies and keep an eye out for an update soon! 👀

CONSERVATION DOGS

In March we introduced you to Sonny, the cat-sniffing dog, and today we're going to shine a light on conservation dogs more broadly. This includes taking a look at the University of the Sunshine Coast's Detection Dogs for Conservation program.

Meet Arran, Skylos Ecology's newest recruit (who is currently learning from Sonny). Source

The work conservation detection dogs do

Conservation detection dogs are trained canines that are used in conservation efforts to detect and locate various species of plants and animals. Conservation detection dogs have become an increasingly popular tool in Australia for protecting and preserving the country's unique and fragile ecosystems. These highly trained canines are trained to use their incredible sense of smell to detect the presence of various plant and animal species, as well as invasive species, which can pose a significant threat to native habitats.

These dogs work with conservationists, researchers, and government agencies to monitor and protect sensitive ecosystems, such as national parks and wildlife reserves.

Conservation detection dogs programs

One example of a conservation detection dog program in Australia is the Detection Dogs for Conservation program at the University of the Sunshine Coast. The program has developed several successful partnerships with government agencies, non-profit organisations, and private companies to provide detection dog services for various conservation projects. For example, the program has worked with the Queensland Department of Environment and Science to locate and monitor the populations of koalas, quolls, and other threatened species in national parks and wildlife reserves.

The University of the Sunshine Coast has a team of four dogs, including:

• Maya and Baxter, both Habitat Detection Dogs: these dogs find Koala scats (poop) of any age so that researchers can map the Koala habitat
• Billie, a Fresh Scat Detection Dog (also known as a Genetic Detection Dog): Billie ignores all scats except for the very fresh ones. Fresh scats contain a wealth of information about Koalas including genetics, diseases and diet.
• Bear, a Koala Detection Dog, trained on the koala itself

The University of the Sunshine Coast's dog team: (top) Billie and Maya, (bottom) Baxter and Bear. Source.

It’s not just about the dogs - technology plays an equally important part in the DDC’s work. The team uses heat-monitoring drones and tracking devices to help locate and keep track of koalas. Technological methods in which “citizen scientists” can be enabled to help protect the animals who fight to survive in our urban areas are currently under development.

Other ways conservation detection dogs are used

In addition to their work in the field, conservation detection dogs are also used in research studies better to understand the ecology and behaviour of various species. For example, dogs have been trained to detect the scat (faeces) of various animals, which can be used to determine their diet, health, and population density. This information can then be used to inform conservation strategies and management plans for these species. Overall, the use of conservation detection dogs has proven to be an effective and efficient tool in the ongoing efforts to protect and preserve Australia's rich biodiversity.

We'll continue to use our Friday newsletter to bring you updates about the work of these adorable and hard-working dogs. (Side note: Hilary recommends this podcast from Out Alive that delves into the training and dedication required to train a Search & Rescue dog in the USA. Listen via Spotify.)

🐶 🐶 🐶

TRAIL CHAT #12: 27 APRIL

with Aubri Drake (they/them)

Aubri (left) and Justin Martino-Harms completing a FKT on the North South Trail. Source: FKT website

I'm really excited about our 12th Trail Chat guest. Not only because they seem incredibly impressive, but also because the outdoor world (or the world in general) can use more representation of non-binary athletes.

Aubri Drake is a queer, non-binary hiker, backpacker, and trail runner (they/them pronouns, please) with approximately 5844 kilometers of thru-hiking under their belt (the act of hiking an established long-distance trail end-to-end continuously). That's a whole lotta distance. And it's not flat terrain either - I didn't attempt to add up the elevation. Aubri has thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail (3524kms), Tour du Mont Blanc (180kms), the Vermont Long Trail (438kms), the John Muir Trail, twice (340kms each time), the Tahoe Rim Trail (266kms), and the New England Trail, also twice (378kms each time).

In addition, Aubri has also summited all of the Winter New England 67. What does this mean? It means that Aubri summited 67 peaks that are over 4,000 foot in the same winter season. For those who are geographically challenged (🙋🏽‍♀️) New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States. If that's not enough, Aubri has also completed the New England Hundred Highest (that seems self-explanatory) and the Northeast 115 peaks - which I'll leave to them to describe.

Summiting Mt. Witney (14,505 feet). Source: The Trek.

When not hiking, backpacking or running up and down mountains, Aubri is a data-crunching research nerd working in the health industry, researching everything from medical outcomes for hospitalised patients to social determinants of health. I'd say that Aubri does a little more than this - their compilation of articles is equally as impressive, such as To be seen: life as a nonbinary hiker and Things I wish I had known before I started section hiking on the AT. Check out Aubri Drake on The Trek's website, which also has a lot of outdoorsy articles, podcasts, resources and more.

Register for Trail Chat #12 with Aubri here.

🏔️ ⛰️ 🏔️

NEXT WEEK

Next week we'll be brining you all the details for Pilliga Ultra 2023, and if Hilary can get it organised before hitting the trail, registrations for Camp FWP! 🤪

Have a wonderful time exploring, eating chocolate and spending time with friends and family over the Easter break, and as always, thank you for taking the time for wild places.

Elanor (she/her) & the For Wild Places team

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UPCOMING EVENTS

27/04 Trail chat #12 with Aubri Drake (they/them) | RSVP

13/05 TRACTION: Yarra / Birrarung | RSVP

3/06 TRACTION: Plenty River | RSVP

01/06 Camp FWP | Details to come

06/06 TRACTION: Gariwerd | RSVP

15/06 Trail chat #15 with Jake Fedorowski | RSVP

17/06 TRACTION: Darebin Creek | RSVP

We acknowledge the the First Nations people who have been custodians of land, waters and culture for tens of thousands of years. We pay respects to First Nations Elders past, present and emerging.

This email was compiled on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. To these people, we pay our respects.

Always was, always will be.