Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01712:body:0:p24
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the early 2000s (Paltridge and Eldridge 2021). Although nine of eleven monitoring sites have been affected by fire at some stage during the 20 years of monitoring, the network of tracks and presence of a full-time fire control team at Yulara has ensured ongoing fuel reduction management and wildfire suppression, meaning individual fires rarely affect more than one or two sites at a time. Furthermore, intensive cat control conducted at Yulara during 2018-2019 allowed the skink subpopulation to thrive even in the extreme drought conditions.

  At Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, where Australian Wildlife Conservancy staff monitor eight 50 ha sites through core Tjakura habitat each year, the number of active burrows has been steadily increasing over the past 6 years with the total number of active burrows across the 8 sites doubling to 153 active burrows between 2019 and 2020 (Australian Wildlife Conservancy, unpublished data, 2021). This follows more than 10 years of active fire management and
  7 years of targeted cat control (using a combination of traditional hunting and tracking and the use of 'catavaults' and soft jaw leghold traps) around key Tjakura sites at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary (Danae Moore, personal communication, 2021).
 On the Kiwirrkurra IPA where three sites (1km long by 300m wide) are surveyed annually by a group of 8 rangers walking systematically through each site for 2 hours, the number of active burrows has been gradually increasing over the past 5 years. None of the sites has been affected by fire since monitoring commenced, and cat control (using traditional hunting techniques) has been conducted in the vicinity of the population in most years. In 2021 a total of 71 active burrows was recorded across the three sites (Kiwirrkurra IPA, unpublished data).

 At another site in the Great Sandy Desert in WA, three monitoring sites (500 x 200m) monitored by Rangers since 2017 have shown a decline in the number of active burrows at two of the three sites due to fire, however the total number of active burrows known to occur in the broader area is unchanged, as more burrows have been found outside the monitoring sites.

 Table 2. Summary of Tjakura monitoring programs

 Population                    Years                                                                                       Survey design                                              Trends             Extent of management
 Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary   2015-2021                                                                                   8 x 50ha sites Each site = 11x500m precise transects       Increasing trend   Targeted fire management since 2010 and cat control since
                                                                                                                                                                                                         2014. Construction of a 9,450 ha fenced area free of introduced predators and herbivores
                               (With current methods, previous data available for some sites with different site design)                                                                                 since 2018 protects some GDS burrows
 UKTNP                         2000-2017                                                                                   9 x >100ha sites surveyed by meandering search             Decreasing trend   Sporadic cat and fire management
 Yulara                        2002-2021                                                                                   11 x 6ha sites 1hr meandering search