Please contact us if you have been involved in wildlife friendly fencing projects in your area. We would like to feature your projects here.

Bat Rescue had a WFF project on the Sunshine Coast using Borderline as the top strand above 3 strands of barbed wire. On the day the fencing contractor looked at the job, a female squirrel glider was found dead on a top strand of the old fence line. This clearly demonstrated the need for more wildlife friendly fencing and the contractor is now very sympathetic to the cause. At around     50c/metre, Borderline increased the cost of this project by around $800, over approximately 2Km of fencing (plain wire is around 10c/metre). Borderline is a white sighter wire and is far more visible to nocturnal wildlife, thereby reducing the risk of entanglement. White electric fence tape in conjunction with a plain top wire is another cheaper alternative. Bat Rescue promoted the WFF project in local magazines, the Eco newsletter published by the Sunshine Coast Environment Council, and through the Land for Wildlife program with site visits, fact sheets etc. At their public educational displays, they use a barbed wire fence demonstration frame, with a modelled flying fox entangled on the top strand. This same frame is used in rescue and rehabilitation training days as special techniques are required to disentangle animals from barbed wire. 

Murray Catchment Management Authority A few years ago Terry Korodaj was employed in a Squirrel Glider Conservation project at the Murray Catchment Management Authority (CMA). He found that entanglement on barbed wire was one of the main threats that they faced after habitat loss.  The CMA ran a field day on WFF, and included a demonstration on the use of the polypipe splitter. It has since been lent out to landholders.

The exciting part of the process was that the tool/field day acted as a catalyst for questioning the CMA’s approach to managing revegetation through the use of barbed wire fencing. Terry was asked to write a paper and develop a policy on wildlife friendly fencing. The policy has been officially accepted and all land protection incentives now require the use of wildlife friendly fencing. There is also a fact sheet that has been produced on wildlife friendly fencing.

Over the last 12 months there has been ~4000ha of land under protection using wildlife friendly fencing.