The Bugle - 13 April 2007
In news this week
- West Moreton Landcarers consider the issues
- Champions to lead community through change
- We're going to 'fix' Broken River
- The Desert Uplands hit the road
- Spot the Red Spot at Burnett Mary forum
- Taking a satellite's view of natural resources
Government updates
- Evaluations available on the web
- Funding high five for Queensland
- Pests targeted in environment package
Reef Plan updates
Natural resources news
- State community-based waterway monitoring workshop on again
- Strong farm productivity growth threatened by R&D cutbacks
- Get a job in NRM!
Regional NRM group stories
West Moreton Landcarers consider the issues
Engaging the community, fighting weeds and pests, and revegetation are the top NRM issues in West Moreton, according to participants in a recent workshop.
About 20 people attended the workshop to help with the development of West Moreton Landcare Group's future group activities.
Surprisingly, given SEQ is in the grip of the worst drought on record, water and planting drought-tolerant plants were only mid-ranking issues.
"The purpose of this initial workshop was to identify the NRM issues that are of most concern to the group in 2007," SEQ Catchments Lockyer community partnerships manager Tony McKew said.
"It will be really interesting to compare issues in 2007 in five or 10 years time."
Workshops like this one help SEQ Catchments understand its Landcare groups' priorities. A follow-up workshop in April will identify activities the West Moreton group wants to undertake in 2007, with these activities to be linked to the group's priorities.
Mr McKew said he was delighted with the number of people attending the initial workshop. For more information, phone Tony McKew on 0439 852 162.
Champions to lead community through change
This year, 20 motivated people will embrace the challenges of change and sustainability faced by rural communities to become natural resource management champions.
The Queensland Murray-Darling Committee, Building Rural Leaders and the Centre for Rural and Regional Innovation Queensland have joined forces to deliver four training workshops across rural/regional centres in southern Queensland.
"The training will challenge the champions into thinking about NRM issues on a regional, national and global scale, and will help them build their leaderships skills and capacity to effectively deal with those issues within and on behalf of their communities," said Sandy Robertson, QMDC coordinator of the NRM champions program.
The champions will represent and be sponsored by local communities and organisations throughout southern Queensland.
Individuals or organisations interested in nominating or sponsoring a champion should contact Sandy Robertson by 28 April on 4637 6228.
TopWe're going to 'fix' Broken River
An otherwise picturesque river in the headwaters of the Burdekin catchment in central Queensland has been suffering from water quality problems for many years which have been exacerbated by low flows.
Algae blooms and faecal coliforms levels which exceed those for safe swimming have been the result of land management impacts in the area.
Broken River, passing through Eungella National Park, is renowned for the platypus that attract many tourists to viewing platforms along its reaches - declines in water quality threaten these tourism values.
The river system also supports the endangered Eungella Day Frog, the Eungella honeyeater and sone endemic invertebrates.
Mackay Whitsunday NRM Group's scientist, Jon Graftdyk, will lead the project using the group's flagship scheme - Sustainable Landscapes - to guide investment through the strategic partnerships the group is building with land managers in the area who will join together to tackle the issue of 'fixing' Broken River's water quality.
50 landholders and around 3000 head of cattle populate the Broken River catchment. Working together with these resource users and the Mirani Shire, Queensland Parks & Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM, this Sustainable Landscapes project will promote best practice and conservation of the river system with key stakeholders.
Approaches will include community education, community consultation and the engagement of landholders in working to reduce grazing impacts through the adoption of best management practices, fencing, off-stream watering points and efforts to restore the riparian vegetation along the riverbank.
For more information contact the Mackay Whitsunday NRM Group on 4953 5298.
The Desert Uplands hit the road
The Desert Uplands group, funded by Desert Channels Queensland, is hitting the road from 16-21 April on their Information Days Tour.
They will be visiting six properties, on six consecutive days around the Desert Uplands region and are inviting landholders to attend.
They are guaranteed to be action packed days with talks on soil erosion, animal nutrition, Desert Uplands projects and computer mapping included in the agenda. Peter Whip will also be at all venues discussing long-term property management planning (at a practical level) and the changing face of the grazing business.
Lunch and an optional project tour will round off the day.
The tour visits:
- Day 1 (16 April) - 'Hotspur', Jericho
- Day 2 (17 April) - 'Ulcanbah', Pentland (between Lake Dunn and Lake Buchanan)
- Day 3 (18 April) - 'Hyde Park', Belyando
- Day 4 (19 April) - 'Percy Springs', Charters Towers
- Day 5 (20 April) - 'Lyons Creek', Torrens Creek
- Day 6 (21 April) - 'Taree', Aramac
For more information contact Andrea Tel on 1800 007 807.
Spot the red spot at Burnett Mary forum
A community forum on the affect of red spot on recreational fishing is being held in Hervey Bay on 9 May.
Red spot disease (or epizootic ulcerative syndrome) is a fungal disease that is often associated with acid water runoff and can appear after heavy rains, particularly following a long dry period.
While not harmful for humans, the disease can lead to secondary bacterial and viral infections and ultimately lead to mass mortality in fish populations.
The Friends of the Burrum River System Group, in collaboration with the Burnett Mary Regional Group, will be hosting the red spot disease forum to gather information and raise awareness about the disease and acid sulfate soils in the Hervey Bay area.
Date: Wednesday 9 May
Where: Burrum Heads Community Hall, Hervey Bay
Time: 7.00 pm
To get more information, or to get involved, contact Andrew Rickert on 4194 7721 or Tim Thornton on 4129 0609 (both from the Friends of the Burrum River Systems Group).
Taking a satellite's view of natural resources
High resolution satellite imagery, capable of distinguishing ground features as small as dams, homes and sheds, is providing the clearest picture yet of the scale and impact of changes across South East Queensland's natural resources.
Over 100 people from the community, industry and government attended the launch of the project Capturing the South East in Brisbane last week. The project utilises imagery captured in mid-2006 by the SPOT 5 Earth observation satellite, together with a vast number of 'overlays', to give a complete and up to date picture of conditions on the ground across all of SEQ.
Overlays can be added on top of the satellite images to provide specific information about (but not limited to) property boundaries, soil types, wildlife corridors, waterways, remnant bushland, cleared areas, and erosion.
"The combination of imagery and overlays offers a compelling perspective of the condition of South East's natural resources and a powerful tool for resource managers and land use decision-makers," said Simon Warner, CEO of SEQ Catchments.
Capturing the South East is a partnership between SEQ Catchments, Geoscience Australia, the Queensland Government and Burnett Mary Regional Group.
For more information contact Shannon Mooney, SEQ Catchments, on 3503 1416.
Government updates
Evaluations available on the web
A number of state-level evaluations are now available on the regional NRM website.
The evaluations included a longitudinal evaluation of regional NRM planning initiatives and an assessment of how regional NRM group activities contribute to the achievement of the Reef Plan objectives.
The recently finalised state-level investment program evaluation will also soon be available on the regional NRM site.
Funding high five for Queensland
Five Queensland regions will benefit from $8.5 million in funding from the Natural Heritage Trust and National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality to protect the environment.
The funding will cover projects in the Torres Strait, Wet Tropics, Mackay Whitsunday, Desert Channels and Burnett Mary regions, including a number of projects to improve water quality on the Great Barrier Reef.
Projects in the Wet Tropics will involve working with landholders to undertake improved drain management to prevent nutrient and sediment loss ,reduced tillage practices and better fertiliser management to reduce the rate of nutrients entering waterways.
Seen as the greatest threat to NRM in the Desert Channels, weeds and pest animals will be a major focus of funding in that region.
Mackay Whitsunday will benefit with ongoing funding for an Aboriginal Land Management Facilitator, and in the Torres Strait will see the continuation of the Badu Island Land and Sea Management project.
In the Burnett Mary region, a project to locate and map significant roosts and breeding sites for both migratory and resident shorebirds will receive funding.
For more information about the Trust and NAP, visit the national NRM website.
Pests targeted in environment package
Dealing with feral pigs and the devastating impacts of weeds are two projects being funded under a $13 million package to tackle some of Queensland's significant environmental challenges.
A wide range of initiatives in six regions - the Fitzroy Basin, Northern and Southern Gulfs, the Condamine, Wet Tropics and Torres Strait - will address issues ranging from pests and endangered species to salinity and harmful marine debris.
"The economic impact of weeds on agriculture has calculated $4 billion per annum. This figure represents production losses and control costs," Minister for Agriculture, Fishers and Forestry, Peter McGauran, said.
Projects will include:
- conducting aerial surveys along the Great North-East Shipping Channel in the Torres Strait to locate ghost nets and other marine debris.
- developing management plans in the Fitzroy Basin to help conserve threatened species or ecological communities.
- managing the increasing feral pig problem in north Queensland.
- reducing and controlling the spread of weeds, including Lantana - a weed of national significance.
For more information about the Natural Heritage Trust and National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality, visit the national NRM website.
Reef Plan updates
Public support needed to save Barrier Reef: tourist operator
Tourist operators have been told they could be doing more to make visitors aware of damage being done to the Great Barrier Reef.
A recent report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests the reef is in real danger of disappearing within 20 years.
Col McKenzie has spent the past two decades working in marine tourism and is chairman of the Save Our Great Barrier Reef Party, launched in November 2006.
He says if the general public is told the full extent of the problem, government will be forced to take action.
"I think there's a tendency in the tourism industry to try and not talk about the problems so that people won't think that we have these issues and will keep coming back," he said.
"But I think that unless we start telling the people who go out there just how fragile that environment is we won't have the support from the public.
"We cannot save the Great Barrier Reef without support from the public."
To find out how you can do your bit to save the Reef, visit the Reef Plan website.
TopNatural resources news
State community-based waterway monitoring workshop on again
The state community-based waterway monitoring workshop is on again in 2007.
Date: 19-21 June
Location: to be confirmed
Format: Days 1 and 2 - presentations and discussions; Day 3 - optional field trip and/or training sessions
The workshop will:
- share knowledge and skills related to community-based waterway monitoring
- showcase best practice in community-based waterway monitoring
- encourage and progress greater collaboration across Queensland, particularly between state and community-based waterway monitoring programs.
The workshop will be open to approximately 50 representatives from regional NRM groups; community NRM groups; local, state and federal government; research institutes; and other relevant organisations. Science and policy experts, and people coordinating waterway monitoring programs, are strongly encouraged to attend.
For more information contact Gabrielle Van Willigen on 3896 9482.
Strong farm productivity growth threatened by R&D cutbacks
Productivity growth in Australian agriculture has been up to four times higher than the average for the economy according to a new research report but the industry's growth is threatened by cutbacks in research & development (R&D) funding.
The Australian Farm Institute's Productivity Growth in Australian Agriculture report found that Australian farmers have been keeping ahead of the long term decline in their terms of trade by their enthusiastic adoption of new R&D and technology.
The report estimated that around 70% of the current value of agricultural production was the direct result of productivity improvements over the last five decades. Productivity growth in Australia agriculture is driven by continuing investment in R&D to ensure the growth of knowledge is keeping up with challenges and by diffusing that knowledge out to producers. Australian agriculture has recorded similar productivity growth to the United States and well above the average growth for OECD countries.
Continued R&D and extension effort have kept Australian farmers ahead of their competitors in most markets. The intensive cropping sector is leading the charge, with productivity improvement rates much higher than the more traditional extensive pastoral industries. Investment in R&D and extension over the last five decades has delivered a ratio of around 10 to 20 times benefits exceeding costs, a remarkable achievement for both researchers and farmers. At the same time, public investment in agricultural R&D has been falling which is a real threat to the continuing productivity growth and competitiveness of rural Australia.
The Queensland Government has cut its contribution to rural R&D in the Department of Primary Industries by $23 million (10%) over the last four years, an incredibly short-term approach that will reduce the future productivity of Queensland's farm sector. QFF has called for the restoration of that funding and for industry and government to jointly determine DPI&F's research and extension priorities. Visit the Australian Farm Institute website for information on the report.
Thanks to the QFF for this story.
Get a job in NRM!
Are you interested in working with Queensland's regional natural resource management bodies? Then head to the Regional Groups' Collective web site where current job opportunities are now available. Be sure to check back regularly to ensure you don't miss out on the job of a lifetime!
Here's a sample of what's on offer:
Burnett Mary Regional Group
Position: Social & economic regional coordinator
Location: Bundaberg
Salary level: $51 849-$65 795
Reporting to the NRM program manager, you will coordinate and lead strategic planning and implementation of the Community Capacity & Partnerships Action Program.
The role will be responsible for providing technical advice and support to all levels of internal and external stakeholders for improved social and economic outcomes in the region. You will be actively involved in linking projects and on-ground works to regional priorities in a complex and diverse environment seeking multiple outcomes.
For a position description (including selection criteria) contact the BMRG on 4181 2999 or visit the BMRG website.
Closing date: 20 April 2007
Thought for the week
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - )
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The Bugle is a weekly newsletter published by Community Partnerships, the Department of Natural Resources and Water, highlighting regional NRM activities around Queensland.
Last updated 09 January 2008