Land & environment

When I think of tragedy and tales of woe, it is hard not to go past history’s greats like Romeo and Juliet, but Australia as a nation is penning an even more tragic story, one sadly not confined to fiction ... With water or the environment not being big enough portfolios for the Albanese Government to separate, Tanya Plibersek has the job of forcing Southern Basin communities to swallow the pill promised to South Australia in the federal election.

A diverse range of views were heard at the River People’s Forum held in Swan Hill on September 2. What do we want our river communities and river to look like? What is the balance between regulated flows and floods and natural ones? Do we want concrete giants like the KP regulators? Nothing was out of bounds.

Climate change threatens our forests, but it is not necessarily an existential threat, according to a leading Australian scientist. “It’s not necessarily the case that we will be wiped out by wildfire. The existential threat of fire can be mitigated, but we must use ALL knowledge,” Mark Adams, Professor of Bioscience and Innovation at Swinburne University of Technology ... This included indigenous people’s use of fire as a management tool.

Charles Sturt academic, Dr Joanne Connolly explores what makes koalas unique and how Charles Sturt University is contributing to saving endangered populations, including research into the Narrandera koala population ... ARR.News asks some questions of Dr Connolly.

Bushfire affected environmental recovery monitoring in south-west NSW by a Charles Sturt University PhD research student has revealed a hitherto un-noted lizard species in Woomargama National Park. Mr Grant Linley in the Charles Sturt  Gulbali Institute of Agriculture, Water and Environment  said his research obtained photographic evidence of a species, the  heath goanna  (also known as  Rosenberg’s goanna), in Woomargama NP which has not been observed by scientists to occur in the park.

Marine ecosystems and coastal communities will benefit from increased investment and restoration projects as a result of the new NSW Blue Carbon Strategy ... “The simplest way to understand blue carbon is to liken it to underwater forests – just as trees store carbon, marine and coastal plants and ecosystems do too, except even more efficiently” : Minister for Environment, James Griffin.

The resistance of  green peach aphid (Myzus persicae,  GPA)  to numerous chemical mode of action groups makes it an ongoing management challenge. In Australia, GPA has evolved resistance to synthetic pyrethroids, carbamates, organophosphates, neonicotinoids, and quite recently, to sulfoxaflor. And now, Australian researchers have found populations of GPA with resistance to spirotetramat, the active ingredient in Movento ® 240 SC Insecticide, as well as several generic products containing the same active ingredient.

Huge interest in new non-energy products based on brown coal shows the big economic opportunity for the Latrobe Valley as the region transitions away from the power industry, according to an industry leader. The chief executive of Australian Carbon Innovation, Brian Davey, said ACI recently went to the market with expressions of interest, looking for projects in the carbon area using the Latrobe Valley's brown coal.

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.