Open Letter from Concerned Scientists on the Tarkine Road and the Tasmanian Devil
On Monday 16 February 2009, Dr Colette Harmsen, a Tasmanian veterinarian addressed a public meeting of the Waratah-Wynyard Council on a motion before council regarding the proposed new road development through parts of the Tarkine. Dr Harmsen spoke as a concerned Tasmanian and as a registered veterinarian. She told the meeting that the proposed new road into this forested area had the potential to increase infectious contact between devils infected with the socially-transmissible facial tumour cancer and devils in this disease-free population; the last remaining in Tasmania. Dr Harmsen highlighted the knowledge that Tasmanian devils opportunistically use roadways as easy access to new areas especially where road-kill carrion is common. Dr Harmsen also expressed concern for the loss of Tasmanian devils from this population – as road-kill victims – particularly as dispersing juvenile devils.
These statements are supported by wildlife population monitoring after road improvements to the Cradle valley road in 1990s which showed the increased road-kill danger for Tasmanian wildlife and scavenging dasyurids. In cases, of expanded road access through wildlife habitats on sealed highways have the capacity to cause local extinctions. A recent three-year study of road kill frequency on main roads of Tasmania estimated that 1700 Tasmanian Devils were being killed annually. And in another 17 month-long study Dr Menna Jones reported on the direct consequences of sealed upgrades to the main access roads into Cradle Mountain and Freycinet National Parks on the local populations of Tasmanian devils and quolls. As scientists we are particularly disappointed and shocked that the Tasmanian Minister responsible for threatened species in this state David Llewellyn saw it necessary quickly to dismiss Dr Harmsen’s warnings about the impact that the construction of this new Tarkine road posed for the Tasmanian devil.
In a statement made to Tasmanian media, Minister Llewellyn said Dr Harmsen’s ‘logic was flawed’ and did not represent the Government’s views. In November 2007 Professor Hamish McCallum publicly warned that researchers may only have a year to save the Tasmanian devil from extinction in the wild. And in March 2008, a 3-day scientific workshop on the Tasmanian Devil hosted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature heard about the importance of the disease-free devil populations in North West Tasmania. Apart from impacts to this nationally listed threatened species, such road developments have the potential to hasten the transfer of other unwanted organisms such as feral animals, weeds and other disease-causing pathogens. Scientific reports and technical workshops have already highlighted the westerly and southerly spread of DFTD-infected devils facilitated by major roads and the presence of road killed wildlife. Road construction and usage have also been incriminated in the spread of chytrid fungal infection of frogs within Tasmania.
A thorough, science-based IRA of this road proposal considering the ecological effects the local biodiversity values including the potential for accelerated spread of unwanted weeds, pests and diseases is required. We wish to support Dr Harmsen for expressing her concerns on the adverse consequences that the construction of this new road will create for the last major stronghold population of wild facial tumour-free devils in Tasmania. We also defend Dr Harmsen’s right as a scientist to speak freely about the devil and the threats this road proposal has for its continued survival.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Peter Temple-Smith Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Reproduction & Development, Monash Institute of Medical Research
Dr Justyna Zofia Paplinska, Zoologist & conservation geneticist, Zoology Department, The University of Melbourne
Chris Sanderson, Ecologist, University of Queensland
Dr Tony Friend, Principal Research Scientist, Science Division, Albany Research, Department of Environment & Conservation, W.A
Dr David Obendorf, Veterinarian (Tasmania), wildlife researcher & member of the Save the Devil Stakeholder Reference Group
Dr James Watson, The Ecology Centre, University of Queensland
Dr Greg.P.Clancy, Fauna/Flora Ecologist, Couts Crossing, NSW
Larissa Abbott, Ecologist, Flora & Fauna Impact Assessment, SMEC Holdings Limited
Dr Alexandre Kreiss, Veterinarian (Tasmania) & enrolled in devil facial tumour PhD research, University of Tasmania
Dr Richard Donaghey, Zoologist & Ecologist, Myalla, North West Tasmania .
Dr Kim Riddle, Veterinarian, BVSc, DipClSt (Wildlife Health)
Dr Inger-Marie Vilcins, Postdoctoral Scholar, Microbiology, Medical Entomology & Vector-borne disease, University of California
Dr Melanie Panayiotou, Veterinarian, BVSc (Hons)
Professor Greg Woods, PhD, Associate Professor, Immunology, Menzies Research Centre, University of Tasmania.
Dr Rebecca Spindler, PhD, Manager, Research and Conservation, Taronga Conservation Society Australia
Dr Sandra Berry, Visiting Fellow, Australian National University WildCountry Research and Policy Hub. Fenner School of Environment & Society.
Dr Andrea Reiss, Veterinarian (Western Australia) BVSc, MVS, MACVSc
Professor Maurice R. Alley, Associate Professor of Veterinary Pathology, Pathobiology Section, Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Dr Neil McGlashan, Medical Geographer, D.Sc, School of Geography, University of Tasmania & member of the Save the Devil Stakeholder reference group
Dr James Harris, Veterinarian (Tasmania), BS, DVM, FRSPH
Dr Emma Hage, Veterinarian (West Indies) & volunteer with the Save the Devil Project in 2008
Tamara Keeley, Wildlife Reproductive Biologist, Taronga Western Plains Zoo, NSW
Alexandre Kreiss, PhD student, completing PhD on the Tasmanian devil’s immune system and DFTD, UTAS
Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania
Dr Virginie Kurowski, Veterinarian. Completed veterinarian thesis on the Tasmanian Devil and the DFTD, France.
Dr Elizabeth Murchison, Scientist, Welcome Trust Sanger Institute (UK) and the Australian National University.