The Bugle - 2 June 2006
In news this week
Regional NRM group stories
- Desert Uplands Committee pays landholders for good land management
- Pelican 1 expedition a success
- Burdekin Dry Tropics sponsors Landcare conference registrations
- Field days will help add reality to salinity
- $$$ available for NRM in the South West
- Community supports Veresdale Scrub rescue
Government updates
- Premier releases Blueprint for the Bush
- 43 projects to help Defeat the Weed Menace
- SIPs' relevance and value is being reviewed
- Senate Estimates hearing transcripts available on the web
- Program protects farm production - and natural heritage
Reef news
Natural resources news
- Eagleby's soaring success
- Public to get help identifying fire ants
- Queensland Landcare Conference: Early bird registrations
Desert Uplands Committee pays landholders for good land management
Desert Uplands Build Up and Development Strategy Committee has secured funding through Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM from the National Action Plan and Natural Heritage Trust to encourage good land management in the southern Desert Uplands.
The Landscape Linkages project will call for tenders from landholders who are interested in being paid for maintaining a minimum of 50% ground cover over an area of land on their property.
Landholders would still be able to graze the country; the agreement would be between the landholder and the Desert Uplands committee and would not be linked to the property's tenure.
The tender process will involve landholders setting the price per area appropriate to managing their country to a minimum of 50% ground cover. Agreements will be for two years with payments to the landholders staged throughout the period.
Awareness workshops will be held in early August. Dates and venues are yet to be finalised.
For more information about Landscape Linkages contact Robyn Adams on 4651 0939 or the Desert Uplands office on 4651 1002.
Pelican 1 expedition a success
Pelican 1, a 63ft sailing catamaran, sailed from Bundaberg in March for a five-week scientific expedition sponsored by the NHT2, EPA, AFFA, Cairns Indigenous Coordination Centre, GBRMPA, FNQ NRM and BDTNRM.
On board were four young indigenous trainees: Matthew Seaton, Ewan Kepple, Lwayne Boslem and Pedar Lawrence. The trainees spent six weeks learning about the Great Barrier Reef, monitoring coral bleaching, scuba diving and gaining navigation skills.
On Monday 20 March, Cyclone Larry hit the Mission Beach and Innisfail area. After sitting out the cyclone in Townsville, Pelican 1 conducted an extensive survey of the cyclone damage. Ten days later it sailed from Cairns to continue monitoring coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.
Learn more about the project and read daily journal entries
Burdekin Dry Tropics sponsors Landcare conference registrations
Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM is seeking nominations from Landcare members within its region for sponsorship to attend the 17th annual Queensland Landcare Conference in Brisbane from 21-24 August.
Sponsorship is available for eight community delegates. To be eligible, you must be nominated by your community group.
With four keynote speakers and 35 concurrent sessions around themes of peri-urban planning; technology; ecosystem services; bridging the divide; engagement; climate change and innovation - there is something for everyone.
For more info, email Gale Duell.
Field days will help add reality to salinity
South West NRM and researchers from the University of New England are holding two fields days to follow up workshops that were held in March, demonstrating techniques in soil and water testing. The field days will provide information to help the community understand salinity in the Nebine-Mungallala-Wallam catchment.
These field days will be held from 10am to 2pm at:
- Culgoa Floodplain National Park, on 6 June
- 'Charlton', west of Bollon, on 7 June.
There will be a session on how to tell if scalds are caused by salinity, and what to do about them. Also, the tell-tale signs of salt in the landscape will be explored, and the most likely places that salinity could appear in its various forms will be discussed. Field day attendees will be able to road test a new toolkit, prior to it's release, that helps landholders identify and assess salt in the landscape.
South West NRM's Dan Ferguson and Alina Barkla will be on hand to discuss salinity and other NRM issues.
If you are interested in attending either of these field days, contact South West NRM on 4654 7382.
$$$ available for NRM in the South West
Applications for round three of FUTURESCAPES will open on Monday, 19 June, closing 24 July.
FUTURESCAPES assists land managers in the Bulloo, Paroo, Warrego and Nebine-Mungallala-Wallam catchments to undertake projects that provide healthy and sustainable landscapes for the individual enterprise, wider community and future generations.
Significant projects being undertaken from round two include:
- A joint landholder/local government initiative to tackle parthenium in the upper Mungallala Creek catchment.
- Two projects balancing production and nature conservation in an Ooline ecosystem and a spinifex sandplain.
- Eleven projects to fence 140 km of land near creeks and rivers, to evenly distribute grazing pressure.
To register your interest and receive an application package, please call South West NRM on 4654 7382, the Bulloo/Paroo Community Support Coordinator (Quilpie) on 4656 2923, or the Warrego/Nebine Community Support Coordinator (Cunnamulla) on 4655 2999.
Community supports Veresdale Scrub rescue
The shade of a large Moreton Bay Fig in the grounds of the Veresdale Scrub State School was the assembly point for 18 participants in a plant identification workshop.
The workshop, which focussed on plants of the Veresdale Scrub, was led by well-known local botanist and artist Janet Hauser and was organised by the Logan and Albert Conservation Association (LACA). SEQ Catchments supported the event by funding the printing of the first edition of the Veresdale Scrub Plant Identification Guide.
The workshop was part of the 10-year Rescue Action for the Veresdale Scrub strategy. More than 80 locals attended the strategy's recent launch.
Working with nearby residents, LACA aims to protect endangered species such as the Pouteria eerwah (Veresdale Plum or Shiny-leaved Coondoo). Work has already started at two sites at Champneys Rainforest on private land and a council reserve at Dairy Pastures Estate, Veresdale.
For more info visit the Logan and Albert Conservation Association web site, email Andy Grodecki or phone him on 5543 1181.
Premier launches Blueprint for the Bush
Premier Peter Beattie yesterday unveiled a ten-year blueprint to help support growth and development in rural and regional Queensland.
Mr Beattie said the document was the most comprehensive and far reaching plan for the bush ever produced in Australia.
He said the visionary strategy had been developed in collaboration with one of the State’s peak agricultural bodies, AgForce Queensland, and the Local Government Association of Queensland.
"Rural communities are the backbone of our great state," Mr Beattie said.
"The contribution of the rural economy is often undervalued and population decline seen as inevitable.
"However, the reality is that the rate of economic growth in rural Queensland is amazing and the population is set to grow in the long term."
Read the Premier's media statement
Read the Blueprint for the Bush and supplementary reports
Download the Blueprint for the Bush (PDF 1.78 MB)
43 projects to help Defeat the Weed Menace
The Australian Government's Defeating the Weed Menace program will support 43 projects, details of which were announced this week by the Acting Minister for the Environment and Heritage, and the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation, Senator Eric Abetz.
Senator Abetz said: "The Australian Government is providing $44.4 million over four years for national action on weeds through its Defeating the Weed Menace program."
See the Minister's full statement, including a list of the funded projects
SIPs' relevance and value is being reviewed
A review has begun to determine the effectiveness of State-level Investment Projects (SIPs) in building the capacity of regional NRM personnel to plan and implement actions that protect or improve the condition of natural resources.
SIPs are undertaken by state government and other science and social science researchers, often in partnership with regional bodies. They address salinity and water quality monitoring and modelling, social and economic analysis, and impact assessment of NRM initiatives at the regional scale.
The review will consider the extent of the projects' contribution to building capacity in the following areas:
- generation, dissemination and impact of new knowledge across NAP regions
- development and impact of existing and new tools and processes across NAP regions
- improved coordination across regions, agencies and other stakeholders
- funds leveraged through new investments, and new partnerships brokered
- ability to improve staff skills within regions, industries or agencies.
Alliance Resource Economics, the consulting team undertaking the review, will survey clients and stakeholders who have been involved in the SIPs either as providers or as recipients. These should include regional body CEOs and staff, local and state government personnel, industry personnel, community groups, land managers and many others. More in-depth interviews with a representative sample of clients and stakeholders will follow the questionnaire analysis.
The findings from the review will be workshopped in August. For more info, phone Helena Malawkin on 3239 3884.
Top
Senate Estimates hearing transcripts available on the web
Transcripts of Senate Estimates hearings are available on the web. Included are transcripts of the Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Legislation Committee.
Read the transcripts of Senate Estimates hearings
Program protects farm production - and natural heritage
The Queensland Government's NatureAssist program is helping landholders protect Queensland's significant natural and cultural values, while allowing sustainable production to continue.
To find out more call 1800 603 604 or visit the NatureAssist web site.
Investigation helps meet Reef Plan's goal
Pesticide loss from sugarcane cultivation in the Lower Burdekin, and the risks to the Great Barrier Reef, are under examination by the Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM Group's Coastal Catchments Initiative in partnership with the Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research.
This investigation has the potential to help implement the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan as it aims to identify key pollutants in the Burdekin region, predominately agricultural pesticides.
The Reef Plan's goal is to reduce pollutants (including elevated levels of nutrients and sediment, a range of insecticides, herbicides, heavy metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons) causing a decline in the quality of water entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.
Studies have shown low concentrations of these pollutants in the aquatic environment, however, exceptions have been found near areas of intensive agriculture and in ports, harbours and urban areas. These high concentrations are generally the consequence of agricultural and industrial run-off, effluent discharge and urban stormwater.
Results of the project will help land managers, industry and management agencies monitor changes in land-use practices aimed at reducing and halting the decline in water quality entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.
Visit the Reef Plan website to find out more about the Reef Plan
New member joins Reef Plan team
Geoff Borschmann, previously with the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water, has joined the Reef Water Quality Plan Secretariat within the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.
Geoff will be handling the water quality partnership area, as well as being involved with reporting and other secretariat activities.
You can email Geoff Borshmann or phone him on 3405 6254.
Eagleby's soaring success
It's hard not to be impressed by what's been done at Eagleby Wetlands in southeast Queensland. Down below Mt Stapleton, where bull sharks and bronze whalers are said to have a breeding area in the depths of the Albert River, an overgrown dairy farm is undergoing a major transformation.
Originally the area, extending to the confluence of the Logan and Albert rivers, was a traditional meeting place of the Yugambeh Aboriginal people.
After a $3.5 million cash infusion and a lot of hard work by local people over the past few years, a three square kilometre tract of low-lying country is being turned into a high-quality wildlife refuge.
Late afternoon and the lake is alive with water birds: ducks, waders, coots and cormorants. Half a dozen royal spoonbills glide in to settle near a group of magpie geese, and there in the bird hide, amateur ornithologist Rod Bloss is watching through his binoculars.
Bloss and Chris Austin are proud of how things are developing. They remember 1998, when what is now the lake was a jungle of grasses, taller than head height, where huge chunks of concrete had been dumped.
People power, the Gold Coast City Council and a succession of 16-member teams of Community Jobs Plan workers, who have laboured under Austin's supervision, are responsible for the metamorphosis of the area. Conservation Volunteers Australia and Bushcare volunteers have also given much time.
Public to get help identifying fire ants
Gladstone residents will get information in their mail boxes this week telling them what to look for to identify fire ants.
Jenny Bibo from the national fire ant eradication program says fire ants can be varying sizes and are usually a coppery brown colour.
She says if anybody has concerns about ants in their backyard they should contact the fire ant control centre so they can be checked out.
Queensland Landcare Conference: Early bird registrations
Early bird registrations for the Queensland Landcare Conference will close on 15 June. The conference, which will run from 21–24 August in Brisbane, will offer a wide range of workshops, forums, field trips and social events to more than 300 delegates expected to attend from across the state and beyond.
The theme of the conference is Bridging the Urban-Rural Divide, and will commence with a welcome address by the Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Water, Henry Palaszczuk.
Community early bird registration is only $385. After 15 June, the cost will increase to $440. Agency and corporate early bird registration is $500. After 15 June this will increase to $600. Members of the Queensland Landcare Foundation receive a further $20 discount off registration fees.
A handful of subsidies are also still available for community group representatives and landholders across the state. If you'd like to access one of these modest subsidies or would like more information about the conference, please contact Queensland Landcare Foundation on 07 3211 4413 or email Kerri.
Registration and program information is also available online at www.landcare.org.au/Conference.htm
Thought for the week...
Cows and kids: The Swiss spend as much annually on subsidising three cows as they do on primary schooling for one child. Silvio Borner, head of Basel University's department of applied economics, calculated that a single Swiss cow costs SFr4,000 in government subsidies, while the cost of keeping a child in primary school for one year is SFr12,000.
We welcome your contributions and feedback. If you have any comments or suggestions for The Bugle please contact Paul Rees or Miriam Airey.
To view past issues of The Bugle visit the regional NRM web site.
Last updated 02 June 2006