Land & environment

The highest rainfall in a decade has turned the red earth of Central Australia into a spectacular carpet of green vegetation ... With recent drier and hotter than average autumn days, the grasses are haying off quickly, increasing the fire risk with heavy fuel loads across the landscape. Bushfires NT (BFNT) and Parks and Wildlife have been hard at work with NTFRS, DIPL, Alice Springs Town Council and other landholders jointly planning fire mitigation strategies both within Alice Springs municipality and across the region.

The Threatened Flora Seed Production Garden will grow the Island’s at-risk species before collecting the seed for banking and biodiversity recovery projects ... The garden ... will enable landholders and community organisations to access rare and threatened plant species following fires, droughts and floods.

The South Australian apiary industry pollinates agricultural and horticultural crops valued at an estimated $1.7 billion and produces more than $11 million worth of honeybee products ... I can advise that PIRSA has set up an Incident Management Team to stop the spread of Varroa mite into South Australia ... There are nearly 3,000 beekeepers registered with Biosecurity SA and approximately 61,000 hives in South Australia.

“I commend the new Water Minister for getting on with business, but the truth is, these projects were well on their way to being signed off before the change of Government ... What we really need now is a Basin Management Plan rather than a water recovery plan. There are plenty of ideas about ways to achieve good environmental outcomes without the need for further water recovery and they should all be on the table as a way to offset any further water recovery,” Senator Davey said.

The Australian Government has announced $37.9 million towards the Lower Murray Water Efficiency project to better equip the Sunraysia water delivery network to combat a changing climate. This project delivers 2.5 Gigalitres (GL) of water savings back to the environment, First Nations Peoples and securing urban water supply.

The Australian and South Australian governments have announced $2.7 million to improve water infrastructure in South Australia, while delivering 126 ML of water savings to the environment. The Marion Water Efficiency Project will enable the City of Marion to reduce water use from the main Adelaide water supplies, which are often pumped from the Murray–Darling Basin, and help future-proof iconic sites like the Coorong and Lower Lakes.

Chris Oldfield. Concerns about native vegetation and fauna if the North Parklands were developed attracted a round of applause during a recent forum ... “Because once this land has gone and the way I see it personally, and maybe others see it the see it the same - once this land is gone and put under houses, it is gone from potential native regeneration for walking tracks and for flora and fauna, and it is gone forever.”

Australia’s $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan is in its tenth year. The plan had key objectives to save the Murray, restore the balance and do so in an adaptive way based on best available science ... The sheer insanity of the basin’s direction can be demonstrated by the huge almond plantations adjacent to the Murray. What were dryland farms 20 years ago are now intensive irrigation areas often using more water than rice or cotton per hectare with no regulation on salinity.

Forestry Corporation of NSW has started its 2022 replanting program, with three million seedlings set to be replanted into 2,400 hectares of Bathurst pine plantations previously harvested. ... “Through their efforts we are rebuilding plantations previously harvested for timber, including Mount David, Canobolas and Vulcan State Forests.” Forestry Corporation’s Silviculture Manager Mike Freeman

Sarah Booth is heartbroken about the small hobby farmers who don’t have enough feed for their animals since the floods. “I don’t have cattle but all I could see was heartbreak,” the Wyrallah woman said. Ms Booth has 60 families waiting for animal feed for cows, horses, pigs, goats and sheep.

Last week’s council meeting was a big one. The last for the financial year so it included the budget. The State Government’s lack of action on flood recovery was a theme throughout the meeting. Here’s the summary of the Richmond Valley Council meeting on June 28.

A three-month search for the elusive glossy black cockatoo led to this photo. The splendour of the red panels on the tail of the male glossy black cockatoo can be clearly seen. It was a photo ecologists feared might never be taken after searching for the rare birds for almost three months in the Northern Rivers without success.

Farmers across the state are once again being hit by wild weather creating fresh concerns about food supply chains ... The impacts of the torrential rain are being felt out into the central west, and vegetable growers in the Hunter Valley have had paddocks drowned for a third time this year.

Identification and development of novel hard seeded pasture legumes teamed with cost reducing management practices and dedicated extension efforts are heralding a revolutionary change for growers in South Australia and Victoria’s low to medium rainfall regions.

A moving and hilarious fish-out-of-water memoir of a millennial leaving his inner-city life to take over the family farm. Sam Vincent is a twenty-something writer in the inner suburbs, scrabbling to make ends meet, when he gets a call from his mother: his father has stuck his hand in a woodchipper, but ‘not to worry – it wasn’t like that scene in Fargo or anything’.

Of Marsupials and Men recounts the fascinating and often hilarious history of the men and women who dedicated their lives to understanding Australia’s native animals.

Minister for Environment James Griffin said a new model could lead to the handback of title to all NSW national parks, which cover nearly 10 per cent of NSW, over a 15 to 20 year period. “Already, more than 30 per cent of the NSW national parks estate is covered by joint management, but Aboriginal people currently hold title or native title to just over four per cent of it,” Mr Griffin said.

A new study led by the University of South Australia indicates tens of thousands of wind turbine blades will end up in landfill by the end of the decade unless end-of-life programs are established soon. The study, led by  Professor Peter Majewski, highlights the challenges of recycling wind turbine blades, which are made of either carbon fibre or glass fibre composite material, both of which are expensive to break down, with the recovered materials having minimal market value.

It might not be Paul, George, Ringo or John, but local farmers were thrilled to find another type of beetle on their Central Highlands property in March 2022, the Zygogramma bicolorata beetle. ‘It’s a very useful tool to help control parthenium, especially in a good ecological environmental system,’ said the local property owner.

The risk of an FMD outbreak in Australia has been given a probability of 9% (1%/19%). The advent of FMD in Indonesia increases the likelihood of an incursion into Australia. We should not have waited until FMD or any disease was close to bring attention to the risk of exotic diseases ... In the event of an outbreak of FMD, we would immediately lose a large number of our premium livestock markets. The longer an outbreak takes to be controlled, the longer we are shut out of premium markets.

Extreme fire weather days have increased in Australia by 56 per cent over the last four decades, according to new research from an international team of scientists, including CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency ... CSIRO researcher, Dr Pep Canadell, said an increase in fire weather trends translated to an increase in the number of Australian bushfires.

The first of a three part series by Philip Hopkins. Sharing information globally about the causes and impacts of destructive bushfires in an era threatened by global warming drew about 360 people to an international conference in Melbourne in June. Fire & Climate 2022, presented by the International Association of Wildland Fire in partnership with Natural Hazards Research Australia, concentrated on the most significant forces shaping wildland fire today.