The Bugle - 25 November 05
In news this week
- Come one, come all, volunteers great and small!
- New facilitator takes up role in Charleville
- South-west NRM investment strategy released
- May's the month for all things wet and watery
Government updates
Natural resources news
- And the 2007 Landcare & Catchment Management Conference and Awards goes to...
- Wetland lagoons not always fish nurseries
- World renowned agricultural economist to speak at QFF Conference
- Coral reefs adapting to climate change
Come one, come all, volunteers great and small!
The dedication of Hervey Bay students has been enlisted in the ongoing war on weeds on Big Woody Island.
About 50 Torquay State School Year 5 students recently returned from a two-day effort targeting coral berry and cobblers peg on Big Woody Island in the Great Sandy Strait National Park.
The volunteers from classes 5C and 5F joined the project coordinated by the Lower Mary River Land & Catchment Care Group (LMRLCC). The students hand-pulled weeds from a 0.0187 hectare site near the historic Middle Bluff Lighthouse track, which runs along the rock wall built by the lighthouse keepers in the mid-1800s.
The students then made reports on the trip and the challenging conditions they encountered. The activity is also being used to trial risk management procedures being developed by the group. The LMRLCC has a broad-based approach to its Landcare work and challenges everyone to participate, from local farmers, including president Tony Coutts-Smith, to school students.
LMRLCC is proudly sponsored by the Burnett Mary Regional Group for Natural Resource Management Inc (BMRG). For further information contact the BMRG on 4132 8333 or the LMRLCCG on 4128 1750.
Australian Government Strategic Facilitator
Early November saw Mr Keith Walker take up the position of Australian Government strategic facilitator, based with South West NRM in Charleville.
Keith's new role is to develop partnerships between South West NRM, the Australian Government and clients from across the region to protect and repair the South West's natural resources and improve the way they are managed.
Keith's NRM background has been shaped by service to the community for the past 20 years through the fields of forestry and protected area mangement. Since settling in south-west Queensland, Keith has held a number of positions on community based committees, both of a vocational and voluntary nature.
Keith has a Bachelor Degree in Parks, Recreation and Heritage, an Associate Diploma in Applied Science (Forestry) and an Associate Diploma in Farm Management (Agriculture).
If you would like to contact Keith, you can give him a call on 4654 7382.
South-west NRM investment strategy released
Money will soon be flowing into the South West with the launch earlier this month of the South West Natural Resource Management Regional Investment Strategy.
Funding and in-kind contributions of around $4.5 million from the Natural Heritage Trust and National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality will be spent on a range of projects to tackle salinity, improve water quality, maintain biodiversity and manage weeds and feral animals.
The investment strategy will be implemented by the South West NRM group, which covers the Bulloo, Nebine-Mungallala, Paroo and Warrego catchments.
For more information on South West NRM, visit their web site.
May's the month for all things wet and watery
Mackay Whitsunday NRM Group recently designated May as Mackay Whitsunday Healthy Waterways month.
The annual Healthy Waterways forum has been split into three community forums and one scientific forum.
The community forums will showcase the volunteer programs in the region and congratulate the volunteers for a job well done.
- Saturday 6 May 06 – Whitsunday Catchment Landcare
- Saturday 13 May 06 – Pioneer Integrated Catchment Management Association
- Saturday 20 May 06 – Sarina Landcare and Catchment Management Association
The science forum will be held on Tuesday 30 May to discuss programs, results and opportunities to work together. The theme is 'Achievements and Challenges'. A field trip on Wednesday 31 May will show off some of the region's beautiful waterways.
The month will include plenty of media publicity, a photographic competition and fun activities for the Mackay Whitsunday community. So mark it in your diary now and watch this space for more information on upcoming activities.
'Future Programs' on JSC agenda
The impact of drought and lessons learnt from the current NRM programs will be two of the main topics for discussion at a workshop on 'Future Programs - lessons, opportunities and threats' during the JSC meeting in Brisbane next week.
JSC is the joint Commonwealth-State committee that oversees the regional NRM funding programs.
The JSC workshop will involve the Regional Groups' Collective and the chairs of the boards overseeing the NRM SIPs (State-level investment projects).
In a packed agenda for its December meeting, JSC will also consider the reviews of investment strategies for the South East Queensland Catchments and Burnett Mary regions.
Torres Strait strategy progresses
A lot of hard work on the part of the Torres Strait Islander community and the Queensland and Australian Governments is coming to fruition with great progress being made on the Torres Strait Land and Sea Management Strategy.
The strategy will set out priorities for the investment of $2.1million from the Natural Heritage Trust. Once complete, it will also help attract additional funding for land and sea initiatives.
Local knowledge and professional expertise are being combined to ensure the strategy addresses the major NRM problems in the region, including erosion, waste management and control of weeds and feral animals.
It is hoped that the Queensland and Australian Government ministers will approve the strategy's release in the near future.
For more information, contact Kate Eden on 07 3224 8408.
Calling all creative types...
The QIRIS team need your help!
The QIRIS project is moving steadily along, but they've come to the point where they need to name the new system.
There are a number of different options for the system; maybe a conceptual name, an acronym, a word or combination of words that captures the intent of the system, or a combination of all three!
The name needs to be finalised by the end of November, so all suggestions are due by close of business today.
The QIRIS project is developing a web-based system that will help regional bodies manage the information they use in their every day work (like how many trees have been planted on what farmer’s property). QIRIS will help regional bodies track how they are progressing against their NRM plans. Regional bodies will be able to use QIRIS to prepare their reports to government and QIRIS will allow NRM to be coordinated within and across regions.
For more information contact the QIRIS team on 3846 4866.
And the 2007 Landcare & Catchment Management Conference and Awards goes to...
Congratulations goes to the Pioneer Integrated Catchment Management Assoication (PICMA) for being selected to host the 2007 Landcare and Catchment Management Conference and Awards. They will be held in Mackay and will focus on both coastal and inland landcare issues.
Thank you to the other groups who expressed their interest in hosting the conference.
Queensland Water and Land Carers (QWaLC) has received feedback from the 2005 conference delegates regarding plans to host conferences biennially rather than annually, which was first raised at the Townsville conference in 2002. Holding the conference every two years will align with the biennial Queensland Landcare Awards.
For more information on the landcare conferences, contact QWaLC on 3211 4409.
Thank you to QWaLC for providing this story from the 18 November 05 QWaLC update
Wetland lagoons not always fish nurseries
Lagoons along the Fitzroy river floodplain in central Queensland are well-known fish nurseries but their success in sustaining local fiheries depends on how frequently they are connected to estuaries.
A recent study by Coastal Cooperative Research Centre scientists challenges the popular view that wetland lagoons annually replenish juvenile fish in surrounding waterways during summer flows. The findings indicate that global climate change, local rainfall and drainage all have a major impact on the survival of juvenile fish.
Dr Martin Sheaves, an estuarine ecologist at James Cook University, has studied the link between wetland connectivity and fisheries production in the Fitzroy river floodplain for several years. He has found that rainfall, tides and floods keep many pools connected with waterways, but some link infrequently or become isolated.
As a consequence, the physical and biological connections between wetlands often break down and each pool functions quite independently. This has a major impact on the survival of breeding and juvenile fish, particularly during periods of drought.
"Coastal managers now have a better understanding about the way flood events in crucial wetland habitat influence estuary ecosystems, especially fisheries, when they make decisions that affect new developments, water supplies and ecologicaly sustainablity," Dr Sheaves said.
For further information you can contact Dr Sheaves on 4781 4144 or visit the Coastal CRC web site.
World renowned agricultural economist to speak at QFF Conference
World renowned agricultural economist Dr Mike Duffy, from Iowa State University, will be headlining the presentation line up at the Queensland Farmers' Federation Enhancing Sustainable Agriculture Conference and Tradeshow being held from 19-21 March 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Coolum.
At Iowa State, Dr Duffy works as an extension economist in farm management and is also responsible for Iowa's annual land value survey, cost of crop production estimates, Iowa farm costs and returns publication and he is state leader for the Extension Farm Financial Planning Program.
Dr Duffy's research activities include determinants of farm profitability, small farms, soil conservation, integrated pest management and sustainable agriculture.
For more information on the conference, visit the QFF web site and click on 'Hot Issues'.
Thank you to the QFF for providing this story from the 18 November 05 weekly bulletin (p. 2)
Coral reefs adapting to climate change
Scientists believe corals may be able to protect themselves from devastating bleaching events after discovering some can adapt to climate change.
The find, described by Dr Ray Berkelmans as 'tremendously exciting', comes amid predictions up to 100% of the Great Barrier Reef could be wiped out by the end of the century because of rising water temperatures.
Dr Berkelmans, from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said a predicted one to three degree increase in temperatures could result in 80-100 percent bleaching. Water temperatures could rise as high as 32°C in some parts of the Reef and could take as long as 100 years to recover, he said.
But Dr Berkelmans said his studies found coral could adapt to climate change by using a particular type of algae to become 'thermally tolerant'.
Dr Berkelmans was the head of the surverying team that undertook the most comprehensive aerial survey of coral bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef in 2002. At the time, Dr Berkelmans said that nearly 60% of the coral in the reef was heat stressed to some extent as indicated by bleaching.
For more information about coral bleaching, visit the AIMS web site.
We welcome your input and feedback on this newsletter. If you have any contributions, comments or suggestions please contact Shona Strachan or Paul Rees.
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The Bugle is a weekly newsletter published by Natural Resource Management Arrangements, Natural Resources and Mines, highlighting regional natural resource management activities around Queensland.
Last updated 05 April 2006