The Bugle - 18 August 2006
In news this week
Regional NRM group stories
- Toowoomba forum highlights NRM in the south-west
- Consultation to begin on Border Ranges biodiversity hotspot
Government updates
- Premier Beattie announces 9 September poll
- JSC to consider performance reports
- Community Partnerships goes up in the world
- Big water dollars on offer
- City-bush perceptions under the microscope
- Senate committee hears public views on water policy
- $1.6 million for Qld agriculture education and training
- $1 million to improve water quality in the Burdekin Basin
- Beat the bounce
Reef Plan Secretariat news
Natural resources news
Toowoomba forum highlights NRM in the south-west
Regional NRM groups and Queensland Government agencies showcased their NRM achievements, shared their challenges and planned future collaborative efforts at a recent forum in Toowoomba.
Condamine Alliance, Queensland Murray-Darling Committee and South West NRM joined five government agencies and the Murray-Darling Basin Commission to participate in the Natural Resource Management Reporting Highlights Forum, held on 9 August. More than 30 people attended the forum, initiated by the South West NRM Regional Coordination Group (RCG) Working Group.
Condamine Alliance CEO Phil McCullough said the forum was a real first for sharing opportunities between NRM groups and government agencies.
"The forum underlined the huge human resource potential in our region and highlighted opportunities that I previously was not aware of," Mr McCullough said.
People at the forum were presented with a diversity of projects, case studies and approaches from Corporate Investment Strategy through to Carp Busters Days through to the Charleville Botanical Reserve. They were also offered different perspectives on issues such as groundwater salinity impact on main roads construction.
The RCG working group hopes the forum will help NRM groups and government agencies in the south-west work better.
For more information on the forum or the South West RCG, contact Glenn Knight on 4688 1140.
Consultation to begin on Border Ranges biodiversity hotspot
SEQ Catchments is leading community consultation in south east Queensland on a recovery plan for the Border Ranges.
This area of north east NSW and south east Queensland is recognised as a biodiversity hotspot. This area contains a variety of significant habitat types, including subtropical rainforest, wet sclerophyll forest, mountain headlands and rocky outcrops, and supports a large number of threatened species and communities. Much of the area is listed as World Heritage.
The area is under threat from high population growth, habitat loss and fragmentation, weeds, fire and unsustainable recreational use.
The Border Ranges Biodiversity Hotspot is the subject of a multi-species rainforest recovery plan. The Recovery Plan is the final stage of a three-year $2.2 million project which has seen significant investment in on-ground and research projects. These include activities to monitor and improve habitat for threatened plant and animal species, restoration of high conservation value ecosystems and property management planning.
Community consultation to develop the Recovery Plan will soon get underway, with workshops planned to identify the areas values and issues and to direct and provide feedback to expert panels. The five-year draft plan will be completed by June 2007 and will be placed on public exhibition prior to being finalised.
For more information or if you wish to be involved in the consultation process, please contact Liz Gould, Environment Sector Partnerships Manager on 3816 9723 or Sarah Castle, Community Partnerships Manager - South on 0400 910 679.
$1 million to improve water quality in the Burdekin Basin
Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM is providing more than $1 million to Dalrymple Landcare to tackle land degradation in two high priority areas in the region.
The East Burdekin area (Mingela to Mt Coolon) and the Clarke River Catchment (south west of Greenvale) have been identified as sources of high sediment loads reducing water quality in the Burdekin Basin.
The East Burdekin area includes 68 properties covering 1 million ha, while the Clarke River catchment includes 25 properties covering an area of 650,000 ha. Pasture degradation, declining biodiversity, high levels of erosion in "hot spots", emerging woody weed problems, overgrazing and woodland thickening have reduced water quality.
BDTNRM, in partnership with Dalrymple Landcare, is tackling the problem by:
- Providing Grazing Land Management training for graziers (in conjunction with the DPI&F)
- Part funding on-ground works to accelerate the adoption of improved land management practices including managing riparian areas, wet season pasture spelling, conservative stocking rates, use of fire, protection of endangered ecosystems and critical habitat and reclaiming specific degraded areas.
- Monitoring indigenous cultural heritage sites to ensure they are preserved and protected throughout the project.
- Water quality and land condition monitoring in order to quantify environmental improvements.
- Improving the management of two endangered and 34 of-concern Regional Ecosystems and 15 major watercourses across the two catchments.
For more info, email Deb Cavanagh or phone her on 4724 3544 or 0427 243 001.
Premier Beattie announces 9 September poll
Premier Beattie has announced Queensland will go to the polls on 9 September.
The Queensland Government is now in caretaker mode until the election is decided.
JSC to consider performance reports
The Joint Queensland-Australian Government NRM Steering Committee (JSC) will meet in Brisbane next week.
Top of the agenda will be consideration of performance reports from regional NRM groups, SIPs and statewide projects.
For more info, email Debbie Guzek or phone her on 3225 2676.
Community Partnerships goes up in the world
Community Partnerships has a new home. But we haven't moved far.
We're now located on level 12 Mineral House, corner of George and Margaret Streets, Brisbane.
That's five floors higher than we used to be (an improvement of approximately 71.4 per cent. We hope JSC will be well pleased with this performance).
Big water dollars on offer
Organisations applying for the big dollars on offer through the National Water Commission's Raising National Water Standards Programme have until 15 September to apply.
Grants are for $100,000 to $1 million and can be for multi-year projects, and applications for more than $1 million may be considered in special cases.
Proposals can be submitted by government agencies and other organisations. Partnerships are encouraged.
Potential applicants should phone the Commission to discuss their proposals before applying.
Phone 02 6102 6088 to get a hardcopy of the guidelines or visit the Raising National Water Standards Programme web site for more info.
City-bush perceptions under the microscope
A new campaign to help all Australians understand 21st Century farming has won funding support from the federal government.
Perceptions of farming will be under the microscope with the Australian Government contributing $40,000 to a new research effort initiated by Queensland's rural peak body, AgForce.
Australian Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Peter McGauran said the funding from the National Landcare Programme would help drive research into the differing beliefs city and country people may hold about conservation and animal welfare on farms.
"I congratulate AgForce for its active approach to highlighting the integral role our primary producers play in our economy, our environment and in animal welfare," Mr McGauran said.
Senate committee hears public views on water policy
In the wake of the defeat of Toowoomba's water recycling referendum, a Senate committee recently met in Toowoomba to hear public submissions on water policy.
The terms of reference for the inquiry were to inquire into and report on the impact on rural water usage of recent water policy initiatives and the possible role for Commonwealth agencies, with particular reference to:
a. the development of water property titles
b. methods of protection for rivers and aquifers
c. farming innovation
d. monitoring drought and predicting farm water demand and
e. the implications for agriculture of predicted changes in patterns of precipitation and temperature.
Read Hansard of the committee's public hearing in Toowoomba
$1.6 million for Qld agriculture education and training
Farmers will experience greater returns through tailored education and training in agriculture. Online professional training for cattle producers and electronic access to industry training for pig producers are two projects to receive funding.
Australian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Peter McGauran, together with Tim Mulherin, Queensland Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries, this week announced $1.6 million for nine Queensland education and training projects.
Read the Ministers' statement and view the nine successful projects
Beat the bounce
Have you been wondering why your emails don't reach your addresses or are being returned as undeliverable?
Wonder no more! Some regional NRM groups have recently changed their emails:
Queensland Murray-Darling Committee (QMDC) emails have changed - they now follow the format firstnamelastinitial@qmdc.org.au e.g. olwync@qmdc.org.au
The Vista team have also had an email change – firstinitiallastname@vista.net.au e.g. dzeller@vista.net.au
If you are aware of any more changes, please let the Regional NRM Communication Team so we can update our contacts database.
Great Barrier Reef bounces back
Coral trout numbers on protected offshore reefs are already higher as a result of the new Zoning Plan, the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell, and Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, said yesterday.
Senator Campbell said data from recent monitoring indicates the new green zones throughout the Great Barrier Reef are showing substantive positive benefits.
The monitoring initiated by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, as part of the monitoring of the Zoning Plan, clearly indicates the green zones established in mid-2004 in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park are having a positive effect even faster than scientists expected.
The work was carried out by the Australian Institute of Marine Science ( AIMS) and James Cook University and supported in part by funding from the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility.
Landcare leadership and innovation finalists announced
Four Landcare support officers have been selected from nominations across the state as finalists for the 2006 Landcare Leadership Bursary coordinated by Queensland Landcare Foundation.
Queensland Landcare Foundation Manager Samantha Morris said each nominee had demonstrated amazing passion and commitment to the Landcare community.
"Choosing only four finalists was a difficult task," she said.
"Each of the four finalists have consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty in support landcare groups and their members and have contributed much to their local communities."
The finalists are:
Katie Elder, Rockhampton
Tanya Robinson, Inglewood
Julia Telford, Roma
Lisa Thompson, Surat
The Bursary winner will receive $1500 cash and a handcrafted trophy.
Finalists for the inaugural Landcare Sinclair Knight Merz Innovation Award, which offers $12,000 worth of consultancy services as a prize, have also been announced.
The finalists are:
Clermont & District Landcare Association
Save Our Waterways Now
Tiaro & District Landcare Group
Vera Street Community Garden, Toowong
Winners will be announced at a gala ceremony in Brisbane as part of the 17th annual Queensland Landcare Conference on 22 August.
For more info, phone Samantha Morris.
Seeking young rural people's views
The Outback Youth Infront workshop series wants to hear from young people in the rural, regional and remote areas about the issues facing them, and the "Bush" in general.
This will help the development of a Future Directions report, which will include recommendations on how government, rural industries, communities and young people themselves can address these issues.
Workshops will be held in a number of regions throughout Australia in August and September.
For more info, see the Outback In Front web site.
Thought for the week
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
from Calvin and Hobbes (as told by Ed Wensing)
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To view past issues of The Bugle visit the regional NRM web site.
The Bugle is a weekly newsletter published by Community Partnerships, the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water, highlighting regional NRM activities around Queensland.
Last updated 17 August 2006