What began as the Cross-Catchments Weeds Initiative has now been expanded to include that other major natural resource management issue for the region, feral animals.

The Cross-Catchments Weeds and Feral Animals Initiative (CCWFAI) continues the work in the area of cooperative weed management. Also in its sights now are feral animals, principally, wild dogs, feral pigs, feral cats and foxes.

The Project Officer works with landholders and shire councils to plan and manage control efforts that produce benefits at the property, local and regional level.

In the six years to the beginning of 2005 the landholders of the region have added more than $1.5 million of their own money to the almost $1 million from the National Weeds Program and the National Landcare Program for the control of weeds across the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin.

The CCWFAI works to build on that investment and the successes it has produced and to replicate those successes in the control of feral animals.

Sixteen shires covering the Queensland portion of the Lake Eyre Basin have come together under the auspices of this initiative to develop an integrated regional pest management plan.

This plan will prioritise areas for control, identify where local governments can work together, set out emergency responses and quarantine measures, and identify mapping and surveying priorities.

A key achievement of this initiative's early work was the development of the Weed Alert Program which you can access through the logo below.