Wetlands Trust
The Wetland Environmental Task Force (Public Fund) “WET” was formed in 2001.
The formation of WET recognised the desperate need to preserve and maintain Australia’s remaining wetlands and the essential habitat that they provide for a wide variety of unique native flora and fauna.
WET offers every Australian an opportunity to take positive action to protect and enhance Australia’s remaining wetlands.
The WET Trust
Approved Status.
The Wetland Environmental Task Force (Public Fund) “WET” was formed by Field and Game Australia Inc. (FGA) to provide a vehicle for funding the acquisition, rehabilitation and maintenance of Australian wetlands.
WET has been endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) organisation by the Australian Taxation Office and Environment Australia. WET has also been endorsed for Charity Tax Concessions.
The Purpose of the fund – its Ideals and Objectives
The approved purpose of the Trust as defined by the Trust Deed are:
- to conserve and protect the natural environment, particularly as it relates to wetlands;
- to conserve, create and manage wetlands, its flora and fauna, in an ecologically sustainable way;
- to seek to raise community awareness of the value and benefits of wetlands and to achieve community and private sector participation in the management of wetlands;
- where appropriate, to purchase, repair and manage wetlands wisely;
- to generally comply with the “Wise Use” principles of the Ramsar Convention.
Under pressure from the demands of urban expansion and modern agriculture for land and water, we have seen a significant reduction in the area and quality of our wetlands and those that remain are vulnerable to salinity, water pollution and vegetation clearance.
WET builds on the principles behind the highly successful program of wetland purchase that began in Victoria in the 1959. In the years that followed many important areas of waterfowl habitat were purchased and Game Research Stations were established.
The formation of WET offers concerned Australians an opportunity to ensure that important wetlands and the wildlife that they support are preserved for future generations. Tax deductible gifts of money or property to the trust will be managed solely for the environmental purposes of the Trust as per the Trust Deed. Any interest on donated monies, income derived from donated property, or money earned from the realisation of donated property will be deposited into the Fund and used solely for the purposes of the trust.
Wetlands acquired by the trust will be managed in accordance with the “wise use” principle of the Ramsar Convention (Ramsar).
The "Wise Use" principle, first outlined in Article 3.1 of the Ramsar Convention is defined as the 'sustainable utilization of wetland resources in such a way as to benefit the human community while maintaining their potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations. This means ensuring that activities which might affect wetlands will not lead to the loss of biodiversity or diminish the many ecological, hydrological, cultural or social values of wetlands.
Australia is a signatory to Ramsar.
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WET Logo
The Brolga has been chosen as the logo for the Wetlands Environmental Taskforce Public Fund (W.E.T). This tall slender bird with very long legs is also known as the “Australian crane” or the “Native Companion”.
The adult plumage is grey with a red patch of skin behind the eye, which runs around to the back of the head. They grow to around one metre tall with a wingspan of two metres.
Large flocks (sometimes 1,000 or more) are made up of family groups, which are lead, by a male. The Brolga is found mostly in the tropical north or in the east of Australia. They love to gather in fresh water swampy grassland, but can survive in marginal brackish and salty wetlands where their diet consists of sedge tubers, seeds, insects, small frogs and small reptiles.
The Brolga is most famous for it’s mating dance. With wings spread the two Brolgas jump, dance, pirouette, prance about and perform. At the same time they often make loud trumpeting calls. The dance is very graceful. The nests, a platform of grasses, sedge and reeds are found in swampy grassland. Both the female and the male (who mate for life) incubate the two eggs, which take a month to hatch. Heat damage to eggs is a problem but their white colour reflects the sunlight and heat and nests are sometimes built in the shade of trees. Parents also stand over the nest offering shade. When the wetlands start to dry up the families return to coastal waters to reform large flocks. |
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The main threat to the Brolga is the loss of wetlands; though foxes, poisoning, power lines and fencing also take their toll.
The Brolga is the most recognised of our wetland birds and so, as protectors of wetlands, the Trust have chosen this graceful bird as it’s logo.
For further information on the Trust, please download the WET prospectus below.
Donations
If you would like to make a donation to the Wetland Environmental Task Force (Public Fund), please contact the Field & Game National Office by phone on 03 5799 0960, by e-mail at fga@fga.net.au or please Click Here to make a donation by credit card
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