Land & environment

Mount Alexander Sustainability Group’s Healthy Soils team is looking for commercial farmers with soil issues within a 50-60km radius from Castlemaine. This Healthy Soils Project offers the opportunity for 20 participating farms to receive free soil constraint assessments and soil testing, as well as assistance with developing a soil health management and monitoring plan.

Day 1 of the iconic Birdsville Races, originally scheduled to kick-off on September 2 has been postponed following unseasonal inclement weather that has made track conditions temporarily unsuitable for racing. The Saturday race program on September 3, which will include the headline TAB Birdsville Cup will proceed as scheduled.

All roads lead to Birdsville this week - or do they? While the Birdsville Race Club isn't expected to have its annual two-day meeting directly impacted by rain, there are concerns that roads leading there could be cut off to visitors. Unseasonal August rain hit the North West and parts of the Channel country earlier this week and some roads were quick to shut, albeit temporarily.

Serena Kirby. Preparing for fire season should be a year-round job and leaving it until summer was too late. This is just one piece of advice Murray Brooker gave at his bushfire ready sessions. Murray is the lead facilitator of the Department of Fire and Emergency Services-led Denmark bushfire ready program that is run by community members.

No action has been taken to address the explosion of erosion through hundreds of kilometres of Australia’s most iconic river, the Murray. The erosion is consuming red gum forests, one of which is RAMSAR listed, as well as compromising bank integrity, with floods looming. Private infrastructure is also being impacted with pump sheds, fences, lawns and watering systems all falling prey to hydraulic land clearing.

“Refused!” That one word on the Community Against Iron Gates Development Facebook page said it all. Ian Rankin from the protest group was elated and found it difficult to put the Northern Rivers Planning Panel’s decision into words ... The panel said they would announce their decision on the DA by Gold Coast Coral for 183 houses at Iron Gates in Evans Head at 5pm. At 5.30pm the panel chair Paul Mitchell made the announcement.

The Friends of Lord Howe Island ran their 93rd weeding ecotour 20 to 27 August. Twenty-two people came from Sydney, Brisbane and Victoria to participate. On this trip, the Friends again assisted the Lord Howe Island Board weed team with projects. One was a visit to Blackburn Island to plant out more small trees as part of the revegetation program there.

Vincent Savolainen. Professor Vincent Savolainen has come back to Lord Howe Island to set up new research about the role that underground fungi may play in generating and maintaining plant diversity ... Our understanding of how species originate has changed considerably since Darwin's seminal work. One aspect, however, that has been totally ignored is the role that microbes can play in driving plant and animal diversity.

Suzie Christensen. Meet Willow, the newest potential recruit to the LHIB’s Biosecurity detection dog team. Arriving on island from Perth at 13 weeks old, this little Cocker Spaniel is being evaluated for her suitability to island life, and if all goes well she will begin her training in detecting invasive species.

Many years ago one of my tasks involved assessing rehabilitated mine sites to see if they had attained the agreed "completion criteria" and could be accepted back by Government for ongoing management ... Some years later, a mining proposal was rejected by the EPA and I was approached by the company for advice on an "environmental offsets package" that could be acceptable ... What we managed to achieve was some expenditure in the local area/community with local decision-making.

Rodney Stevens. 'Don't drown our town...Stop the fill'. Those were the chants that echoed across Ford Park and the Yamba Markets on Sunday as more than 100 concerned residents donned red and held up 'Stop the fill' signs to protest against the continual parade of b-doubles dumping fill for floodplain developments ... "They've written to council, they've contacted council over the years about the drainage, about the floodwater in their homes, about the lack of an overall plan and nothing happens."

The forestry sector in Tasmania supports more than 5,700 direct and indirect jobs, many of which are in our rural and regional communities. Our forestry industry delivers a wide range of renewable products which are essential to the community.

Drone technology is being used to inspect the Tweed’s 40 water reservoirs, saving Council time and money. The new technology has been introduced in recent weeks as a way to more easily scan for information about the structure and quality of the water held in each reservoir ... “We can now conduct inspections of the reservoirs ourselves, on the ground, straight away and at very low cost,”: Water and Wastewater operations manager Brie Jowett

This year Forestry Corporation will plant around 14.7 million seedlings to grow timber that builds the homes, houses and infrastructure of Australia in forests. That’s the equivalent of 28 trees planted every single minute of every day throughout 2022 and a substantial contribution to the state’s communities, economy, building industry and carbon sequestration: Forestry Corp NSW CEO, Anshul Chaudhary.  

The turmoil in the native forest industry is deepening, with Australian Paper turning to recycle more paper as its hardwood timber supply dwindles, while a sawmill in the state’s far east is due to close because it has no timber. Recent developments have underlined the crisis facing the Gippsland industry.

Dynamic sustainable farming duo Sylvia Leighton and Peter McKenzie were awarded the 2022 Australian Government Landcare Farming award for their work on Wilyun Pools Farm, a 1214ha property near Wellstead on the south coast of Western Australia ... “Sylvia and Peter serve as an inspiration to the farming community across Australia. Their motto of ‘seeking balance’ exemplifies what landcare farming is all about: production, community and environment,”: Minister for Agriculture Senator Murray Watt

A new world-class wildlife hospital at Werribee Open Range Zoo is now fully operational to treat sick and injured wildlife in Victoria’s western region as part of the response to the devastating 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires. Minister for the Environment and Climate Action Lily D’Ambrosio announced the completion of the RSPCA Koala Ward at Werribee Open Range Zoo, which will increase capacity to provide expert, compassionate care for sick and injured koalas, native birds, reptiles and mammals in Victoria’s western regions.

Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) crews across the State are being trained to use state-of-the-art drone technology to assist in firefighting operations and other emergencies ... The RPAS are equipped with thermal imaging cameras and laser technology that can detect variable heat temperatures, identify people or animals under threat in a fire zone and measure the size of an area impacted by fire.

Celebrate the amazing environment, biodiversity and threatened species that call the Gloucester region home this September as part of the Gloucester Wild Festival. Australia is home to more than 500,000 animal and plant species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. In NSW there are close to 1000 species at risk of extinction, 116 of which are located in the Gloucester region.