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FGA has over 13,500 members, over 60 branches and 51 simulated field clay target shooting grounds throughout Australia. FGA volunteers spend many thousands of hours on a variety of activities including wetland rehabilitation and management, shooter education, waterfowl identification courses (WIT tests), firearm safety and training, pest and vermin eradication and organised duck hunts and fox drives. The current chairman is Russell Bate . The national FGA magazine is Feathers And Fur . FGA has always been an advocate of "sustainable utilisation" as the best way to conserve the native flora and fauna of Australia. They believe that as hunters they understand the need for sustainable shooting. FGA volunteers undertake waterfowl counts each year to assist government wildlife managers obtain waterfowl population numbers and locations. Over the years it's members have built and organised the construction of thousands of nest boxes across Australia. They are monitored regularly, nesting numbers are recorded, and introduced species are removed. This work has been very successful in breeding birds and educating the wider community of the importance of wetlands and their native inhabitants. FGA claims that were it not for their work, a number of Australian Ramsar listed wetlands would no longer exist. HISTORY In 1963 - 1965 the VFGA vigorously opposed a proposal by the Victorian Government to drain the Hirds and Johnsons Wetlands drained. Since their success, the organisation has done a lot of work to preserve these wetlands. In 1978 the VFGA won the Victorian Conservation Prize for "the defence of Victoria’s wetlands, the preservation of wildlife habitat and development of public awareness". The prize was awarded annually to an organisation who has shown outstanding contributions to conservation over the past five years. Research by the VFGA in Victoria during 1992 - 1993 showed that lead levels in black duck at Lake Buloke had reached internationally recognised dangerous levels. This prompted the VFGA to lead the phase-out of lead shot for waterfowl hunting, which was completed in 2002 . In 2001 , FGA founded the Wetland Environmental Taskforce Public Fund (WET) to raise money to protect wetlands. EXTERNAL LINKS
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