National Forum

Kevin Thiele

Kevin is a systematic botanist by training. With Suzanne Prober in a small consultancy partnership called Ecological Interactions, he has worked for over a decade on conservation of remnant vegetation in the grassy box woodlands of the NSW wheat-sheep belt.

This work has included base-line ecological research on patterns of floristic variation in the woodlands and genetic studies on several woodland species including the long-lived overstorey tree Eucalyptus albens and the declining perennial herb Microseris lanceolata. Also explored were long-term management experiments particularly into the use of fire and mowing for management of high-quality remnants and historical-ecological studies into the effects of grazing on understorey composition.

He and Suzanne are leading, with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, a project funded under the NHT to establish a Conservation Management Network for remnant grassy woodlands in NSW. The CMN concept has very wide applicability to other remnant ecological communities, and is seen as an effective mechanism for delivering on-ground conservation in fragmented, widely dispersed remnants on many tenures.

Current and planned work for Ecological Interactions concentrates on reconstruction ecology, particularly in understanding the dynamics of degradation and restoration processes in grassy woodland remnants, with an aim to be able to provide effective and achievable ecological management tools for landholders wishing to improve or reconstruct degraded remnants.