AS an advocate for native wildlife, Dr Cilla Kinross is the kind of person who takes her passion seriously.
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The Orange resident is an adjunct lecturer in environmental management at Charles Sturt University (CSU) and also volunteers for at least five community organisations promoting conservation.
Cilla says her passion for wildlife is based on a belief that people need to take responsibility for the destruction and pollution they cause to the environment.
“I think it’s because other species on this planet don’t get the vote,” Cilla says.
“I feel very strongly that they need advocates.”
In addition to her work at CSU, Cilla is chair of Summer Hill Creek Care, the Central West Environment Council and the conservation committee of the Orange Field Naturalists and Conservation Society.
She also volunteers for the NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES), working in the call centre and as a rescuer and short-term carer for injured wildlife.
Cilla says she’s passionate about all wildlife but admits to a particular interest in birds, which she can trace back to her childhood.
“My interest in birds came from my mother,” she says.
“We lived in England and she used to look out the window and write the names of all the birds she could see on the walls.
“I suppose a group of species that I’m particularly interested in would be woodland birds.
“Species that you used to see a lot locally, but are now really extinct here or that you see little of.”
Cilla is one of the drivers behind CSU’s peregrine falcon project, which she hopes will encourage more falcons to return to the Orange area.
Staff installed a nesting box in the university’s water tower last year and three chicks were born in the tower last week.
Cilla has also spent the past six years planting native trees and shrubbery on her own property to restore the land for wildlife.
Cilla says her approach to conservation is based on a philosophy that communities can have a positive impact on the environment just by getting involved.
“I’m not a radical,” she says.
“I think the best thing people can do is get involved. There’s lots of local organisations people can get involved with as volunteers be it WIRES or Landcare.
“If we don’t fix it no one else will.”
