Peter Stanton

James Peter Stanton PSM (born 1940) is an Australian landscape ecologist, fire ecologist, botanist and biogeographer who individually conducted systematic environmental resource surveys throughout Queensland whilst working for the National Parks department of Forestry (Qld.) from 1967-1974. He carried out his assessments in a wide range of dissimilar landscapes leading to the identification and protection of many critically threatened ecosystems across the state during a period of rapid and widespread land development under the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government. For this work he became the first Australian to receive the IUCN Fred M. Packard Award in 1982.[1][2]

In 1973 Stanton undertook a field review of the conservation status of the Wet Tropics area of Queensland spanning two reports which were published by Queensland Forestry in 1974. [3][4] The reports reinforced and extended the 1965 conservation assessments of Dr. Leonard Webb AO and Geoff Tracey AM of CSIRO [5] which had been confined to the lowland areas of the region on account of the extreme development pressures which were placed on the lowlands from the mid-1950s onwards.[6] Stanton's assessments confirmed that "the areas Webb and Tracey had identified were still some of the highest priorities for conservation" whilst also identifying and recommending the protection of a number of additional endangered habitats both within and beyond the lowland areas. The early conservation work conducted in the Wet Tropics by Stanton, along with that of Webb and Tracey, was instrumental to the later protection of many rare and threatened landscapes within the region, including the lowland rainforests of the Daintree and Cape Tribulation area.

From 1977 to 1997 he worked as a senior scientist for the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service, relocating from Brisbane to Cairns in 1979 where he remained stationed throughout his career. During this period Stanton produced a body of field research which was to significantly inform and support the listing process of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage area and it’s ongoing ecological management. [7][8][9] His conservation work in the Wet Tropics and Northern Queensland contributed to Stanton being awarded the Public Service Medal of Australia in 1996 for "outstanding public service to natural system protection and conservation planning" [10][11] and the Australian Centenary Medal in 2001 for "a long and distinguished public service career contributing to conservation of the Wet Tropics".[12]

In 2001 Stanton was also the recipient of the Australian Wet Tropics Management Authority’s ‘Cassowary Award’ for his scientific work and his vegetation mapping of the region which later culminated in the publication of 38 vegetation community maps at 1:50,000 scale entitled "The Vegetation of the Wet Tropics of Queensland bioregion" (J.P. & D.J. Stanton, 2005).[13][14]The project built on previous 1:100,000 vegetation mapping (Tracey and Webb 1975) [15] providing finer and more accurate vegetation mapping accompanied by a series of reports describing the main vegetation types of each mapsheet area, their understory types, disturbance histories and their links to the geology of the sites they occupy. [16]

Selected works

The majority of Stanton's early and later resource surveys and scientific papers now reside in the collection of the National Library of Australia.

  • Stanton, J. P. (April 27, 1968). "Future national parks, south-east Queensland" – via National Library of Australia.

References
  1. "Packard Awardees". IUCN. February 19, 2016.
  2. WCPA Members Guide January 2008 (PDF). IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature. p. 63.
  3. Stanton, J.P. (April 27, 1974). "A report on the Daintree River - Cooktown region". Queensland Department of Forestry – via Trove.
  4. Stanton, J.P. (April 27, 1974). "A proposed system of national parks for Queensland coastal areas (Bundaberg to the Daintree River)". Queensland Department of Forestry – via Trove.
  5. Webb, Leonard (1966). "The Identification and Conservation of Habitat Types in the Wet Tropical Lowlands of North Queensland". Proceedings of Royal Society of Queensland. 78: 59–86.
  6. "State of the Wet Tropics Report 2017-18" (PDF). The Wet Tropics Management Authority. December 1, 2018. p. 46 – via Federal Dept. Environment.
  7. Hutton, Drew; Connors, Libby (1999). History of the Australian Environmental Movement. Cambridge University Press. p. 171. ISBN 978-0521456869.
  8. "State of the Wet Tropics Report 2017-18" (PDF). The Wet Tropics Management Authority. December 1, 2018. p. 46 – via Federal Dept. Environment.
  9. Stanton, J. P.; Godwin, M.D. (April 27, 1989). "Report on the conservation status of the remaining habitats of the wet tropical lowlands of Queensland". Brisbane, Qld. : The Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service & Dept. of Environment and Heritage – via Trove.
  10. "Award Extract - Australian Honours - James Peter Stanton". Australian Government - Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  11. The Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 1996 No. S 13. Canberra: The Australian Government Publishing Service. 1996-01-26. p. 3. ISBN 0644 46335X.
  12. "James Peter Stanton". Australian Honours Search Facility: Dept of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
  13. Stanton, J.P. & D.J. (April 27, 2005). "Vegetation of the Wet Tropics of Queensland bioregion". Wet Tropics Management Authority – via Trove.
  14. "Wet Tropics Management Authority Honour Roll" – via Wet Tropics Management Authority.
  15. Tracey, J.G.; Webb, L.J. (April 27, 1975). "Vegetation of the humid tropical region of North Queensland" – via National Library of Australia.
  16. "Wet Tropics Conservation Strategy (2004)" (PDF). Wet Tropics Management Authority. April 27, 2004. p. 17 – via Wet Tropics Management Authority Website.


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