Land & environment

Sustainable land management in Western Australia has been boosted by a ground-breaking initiative that has more accurately calculated the extent of salinity in the agricultural region to support new approaches to conserving natural assets and agricultural productivity. The 'Mapping salt-affected land in the South-West of Western Australia using satellite remote sensing' report by the national science agency, CSIRO, and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) was released at a forum in Perth.

South Australian pastoralists inside the Dog Fence will continue to benefit from the services of wild dog trappers, with funding for the trapper program guaranteed for the next four years ... The wild dog trapping program is open to landowners or managers inside the Dog Fence who have baited and still experience impacts from wild dog attacks.

The impact of a series of major landslips caused by recent weather events has been assessed with a dozen Sunshine Coast roads now facing significant repairs. Heavy rain hit the region between February and May with the worst affected areas being Bald Knob, Wootha (west of Maleny), Glenview, Eudlo, Coolum, Peachester, Montville and Towen Mountain.

World Cassowary Day  has arrived at a significant moment for the  Ipima Ikaya Traditional Owner clans with the news that at least 10 Wadthuuny (cassowaries) have been discovered living on their Country in the remote section of the Cape York Northern Area Peninsula.  The findings are part of the first formal Wadthuuny survey to be conducted on Gudang Yadhaykenu Country in the Ussher Point section of  the newly renamed  Apudthama National Park.

The myths about water are many. They range from Australia being the driest continent on earth, to all of our rivers dying from overuse, right up to the government being required to return water to the environment ... here are some not-so-well-known facts that should be shouted out in the present flood of misinformation about our water resources.

Catastrophic floods and droughts are currently being experienced across the world. Paul Wyrwoll and Quentin Grafton argue that our existing approaches to managing water are not working. We need a new paradigm for how we manage water, a rethinking where human societies work with and nurture the hydrological cycle, instead of trying to master it.

The report highlights the complexities of water management and notes that each Basin government holds information about rules, entitlements, allocations, and environmental water - there is no single source of information. This is something the Inspector-General has noticed as part of a trend, with states operating under their individual jurisdictional powers.

NSW Minister for Environment James Griffin said the landmark program is restoring koala habitat on private land, increasing biodiversity and providing an additional revenue stream for landholders through carbon farming ... ARR.News has asked a question of the Minister.

Pam Dillon. Water Safety week at the Tennant Creek pool recently had a real family feel to it. Lots of families came down to the pool to celebrate and learn more about how to be safe in and around water.

John O'Donnell considers the economics of bushfire mitigation in Australia and highlights opportunities for economic reform with fire management across South East Australia, critical considering the high ongoing impact of disastrous bushfires.

The NSW Government has launched two new groundbreaking projects to encourage landholders and farmers to invest in sustainable timber production as part of their land management practices. The Forest Stewardship Program and Farm Forestry Certification Pilot are the first of their kind in Australia and mark a new era in sustainably managed forestry on private land in NSW.

Patricia Gill. Noongar cultural burning may offer historical cues for contemporary fire protection but these cannot be relied on to produce a fire resilient landscape. So said environmental historian Professor Andrea Gaynor at the Royal WA Historical Society Conference ... Prof. Gaynor said Noongar burning practices belonged to a mobile culture and were never intended to protect a sedentary society in a landscape which had been subjected to logging, farming and urban development.

The last of the 42 culverts and floodways that were severely impacted by the Southern Queensland Heavy Rainfall and Flooding event during February 2020 have now been replaced by Toowoomba Regional Council ... “Closing out the February 2020 Flood Recovery Works Program means that our teams can now turn all their attention to the Flood Recovery Program from the more recent flooding events”: Cr Carol Taylor.

The capability of scientists investigating solutions to Australia’s invasive pest problems shone out at the Australian Academy of Science’s Shine Dome in Canberra earlier this month at an event hosted by the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions ... “Graduates of our Balanced Researcher Program are now adding to Australia’s biosecurity and invasive species research and innovation within the government and university sectors...": Andreas Glanznig, Chief Executive, CISS.

Here is a survey about the floods that isn’t being conducted by a government department. This flood survey has been designed by locals and the information gathered will be used by residents to inform future decisions in the flood recovery. Evans Head resident Hanabeth Luke found the stories she was hearing after the floods heartbreaking.

A small South East Queensland council holds grave concerns over the future of their community as Inland Rail proceeds full steam ahead with plans to rip through the heart of their towns ... “We have been raising our concerns since this project was first announced and continue to advocate for our community in our ongoing objection to the unreasonable impacts of Inland Rail": Lockyer Valley Regional Council Mayor, Cr Tanya Milligan.

Back in May, NSW’s Natural Resources Commission and Department of Primary Industries, as well as three universities, quietly published a report about forest monitoring. It states that north coast koala populations have been stable for the last five years, despite 30 per cent of koala habitat being burnt by the disastrous Black Summer megafires ... NSW bureaucrats obviously know that the koala population wasn’t adversely affected by Black Summer. So, one wonders why they’re not shouting the good news from the rooftops.

Log cabins and synthetic trees are part of a successful trial of fish-attracting structures in Queensland which could be just the boon freshwater fishers have been angling for ... the dam stretches over 500 hectares and the hunting ground was too spread out, the fish too hard to find.

Samuel Davis. A man who has experienced one too many encounters with crocs in Cape York has blasted the publisher of a “dangerous” video that shows the apex predator being fed out of the side of a boat. In a 12-second clip posted to Facebook, a saltwater croc snatches a fish tossed at its snout by fishermen as the vessel nears a muddy mangrove.

Years of drought in northern New South Wales led Gunnedah region’s Sam Conway to establish an innovative ‘co-farming’ business model to reduce production risk for small to mid-sized broadacre farmers ... The Co-Farm model revolves around small to mid-sized “passive” landholders contributing their land into a joint venture, where operating expenses and profits are shared on a percentage basis.