Michael is an Honorary Professor in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Newcastle. He is a conservation biologist and his working life has mostly been spent at the University, having studied frogs professionally for over 30 years. Michael spent over a decade on the technical and scientific advisory committee for the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area and the rainforest fauna is one of main interests, although his first work was on desert frogs. Michael is presenting:
"Fire, flood and pestilence, but not a plague of frogs"
Understanding and mitigating the impact of intense and widespread wildfires on frogs is a challenging task. Michael will cover some of the efforts and strategies that his research group has taken since the Black Summer fires of 2019-20. He will place this work in the context of thirty years struggling to deal with an invasive pathogen and the gradual progression of climate warming and drought.