Honours students share Luke Pen Scholarship

20/5/05
Two honours students have won scholarships from the Department of Environment to help with their research into the impact of cattle access to riverbank vegetation and insect population of the Kalgan River and into various aspects of the Wheatbelt's salt lakes.
Environment Minister Judy Edwards today announced the awarding of the Luke Pen Scholarship to Amiee Silla of UWA and Victoria Hartill of Murdoch University.
The fund was established by the Department of Environment to honour the life and work of the late Dr Luke Pen.
Dr Edwards said Dr Pen was renowned for his dedication to helping community groups understand the way rivers functioned and inspiring people to have a vision and passion for the daunting task of fixing river problems.
"It was Dr Pen's vision that this fund would be established to enable more research to be conducted in areas we currently know little about, such as Wheatbelt rivers and salt-tolerant plants for use in saline landscapes," the Minister said.
Victoria Hartill's project focuses on primary and secondary saline lake systems in the Wheatbelt. She is assessing the salt and hydrological change tolerance of different plant species, generating some data on seed germination under differing saline conditions and highlighting the differences between the two types of lake systems.
Amiee Silla is assessing the impact of cattle access to riverbank areas on the macroinvertebrate population of the Kalgan River.
The scholarship is open to honours students, offering up to $10,000 a year for research projects for four years.
Eligible projects include research areas in Wheatbelt valleys and their waterways, the hydrology of the South-West, plants that use more water to help manage changes in hydrology and salt-tolerant plants for use in saline landscapes.
For more information on the scholarship, contact the Department of Environment on 9278 0488.
Minister's office: 9220 5050