Biodiversity Strategy - Gosford City Council - NSW Government

environment and species’ distributions. The survey format was adapted with permission from
Dan Lunney of the NPWS who conducted similar surveys elsewhere in NSW.
Figure 3.4 and Figure 3.7 The “What Can You Find in Your Backyard?” survey and Richard
Davies (DEC) who collaborated on the project holding one of the
survey forms.
Specific objectives of the Wildlife Survey project were to:
• Tap into local knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, local wildlife;
• Encourage family participation in identifying and recording local animals and prompt
further discovery and involvement in related environmental programs;
• Gain knowledge of community values and views on what councils and others should
bedoing to manage native species;
• Build an understanding of actions that might impact on native wildlife and affect
change in perceptions of individual responsibilities for biodiversity conservation;
• Increase awareness of the threat that foxes poses to native species; and
• Gain new locations for threatened and pest species for further investigation.
The survey was trialled and followed up with face to face interviews. A key finding was that
although residents did not necessarily complete and return the form that it was still had an
educative value. It was considered that the survey would be best to be ‘eye catching’ and
distinguishable from other mail. The survey was evaluated and redesigned in the light of this
trial. The councils also recieved valuable in kind contributions from NPWS such as advice on
survey design, and the actual layout design was done by NPWS including the use of
photographs from the NPWS photo library. The grant funding enabled the surveys to be printed
in colour, which increased the visual appeal and interest in the survey considerably.
The survey was distributed to over 120,000 residents in the Gosford and Wyong local
government areas. Over 11,000 Central Coast residents participated in the survey. In Gosford
City surveys were sent to over 67,500 residents in September 2003 and over 7,150 survey
responses were received; with hundreds of extra letters of support and valuable additional
information about additional wildlife species and how they contribute to the quality of living on
Biodiversity - Technical Report Page 61