| Agency Name: | Department of Conservation and Land Management (Western Australia) |
| Formed: | 22 March 1985 |
| Preceding1: | Forests Department |
| Preceding2: | National Parks Authority |
| Preceding3: | Wildlife section of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife |
| Dissolved: | 2006 |
| Superseding1: | Department of Environment and Conservation (Western Australia) |
| Jurisdiction: | Government of Western Australia |
| Chief1 Name: | Dr Syd SHEA |
| Chief1 Position: | Executive Director |
| Chief2 Name: | Mr Keiran McNamara † |
| Chief2 Position: | Executive Director |
| Child1 Agency: | Department of Environment and Conservation |
| Child2 Agency: | Forest Products Commission |
| Website: | calm.wa.gov.au (archive) |
The Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) was a department of the Government of Western Australia that was responsible for implementing the state's conservation and environment legislation and regulations. It was created by the Conservation and Land Management Act 1984, also known as the CALM Act,[1] which is still in force .[2]
The Department of Conservation and Land Management was responsible from 22 March 1985 to 30 June 2006 for protecting and conserving the State of Western Australia’s environment; this included managing the state's national parks, marine parks, conservation parks, state forests, timber reserves and nature reserves.
The Conservation Commission of Western Australia, responsible for assessing and auditing the performance of the department, was also created by the CALM Act.[3] Now (renamed the Conservation and Parks Commission),[4] its functions have broadened, with its purpose stated as "to act as an independent and trusted community steward and government advisor for the protection of Western Australia’s biodiversity and conservation estate while fostering its appreciation and sustainable use".[5]
CALM had management responsibilities in:[6]
At 30 June 2006, the total area under CALM’s care was 26,339,492 ha. The land area managed by the Department was about 9.78% of the land area of Western Australia.
CALM-managed lands and waters received 11,842,000 visits during 2005-2006.
Between 1998 and 2006, the number of people registered as volunteers with the Department grew from 836 to 3,882 with 470,600 hours contributed.
Between 2000 and 2006, the CALM Bush Ranger cadets program showed an increase from 800 to 1,215 Bush Ranger cadets that contributed a total of 268,375 hours to conservation projects just on the last scholar year (2005).
CALM was responsible for the wildlife conservation project Western Shield which is pest animal control (more than 3.9 million hectares of conservation reserves and State forests baited for feral animal control).
CALM also managed two long distance trails:
An important duty of the Department was wildfire prevention and suppression on its lands as well as fire prevention in unallocated Crown land and unmanaged reserves (89.1 million ha transferred from Department of Land Administration on 1 July 2003) by:
Some of the most severe wildfires that the Department had to help to suppress, in chronological order, include:
Earlier forms of nature conservation in Western Australia were under:[7]
The Department maintained and coordinated a range of specialist equipment and emergency response vehicles. This included pumpers and tankers and other equipment relating to operations involving search and rescue and firefighting.