Ben Holmes, project officer of biodiversity, said the organisation had received a grant from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in late 2018 to undertake the three-year program, which needed as many farmers involved as possible to be effective.

Related: Wimmera fox bounty collection declines

"The aim is annually to have a two-or-three-month baiting program from February until April and then again from September to November. That's when we hope farmers will participate and get on board and bait with us," he said.

Mr Holmes said the CMA would provide information to landholders at March's Wimmera Machinery Field Days and free training for those who needed to get relevant endorsements to conduct fox control activity. A March training session is already booked out, with plans to run another in spring. 

"Traditionally, when farmers have baited prior to lambing they have invested a huge amount of effort in a short time," Mr Holmes said.  

"What we're suggesting is a much lower-level of baiting over a much broader time frame and geographical area, so ultimately that results in less effort per person and more effective control overall."

Mr Holmes said the CMA was in the process of gauging how many foxes were in the area, and it was in everyone's interests that they be kept as low as possible.

"I have been working on a project called 'Rewilding the Desert'. The long term aim of that is to reintroduce locally-extinct native animals back into the region," he said. 

"Before we can even consider doing any of that down the track, we need to get some of the fundamental issues under control and one of them is fox and cat predation.

Mr Holmes said species including the western barred bandicoot, brush-tailed bettong, bilby and western quoll have become locally extinct from Little Desert.

"Putting them back in the system will have positive benefits in the ecosystem," he said, "and fox and cat predation is part of the reason why they went extinct in first place,".

"From a farming point of view, there are still lots of properties around little desert that run sheep for lamb and wool production, and fox predation is a always a big problem."

Mr Holmes said Parks Victoria, the Kaniva District and Telopea Downs Landcare and Hindmarsh Landcare groups were delivery partners in the program. He said to contact rc.kanivalandcare@gmail.com for information on how to join up.