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Archives for April 2013

Reef Rescue Grazing Forum

Jaylan · Apr 29, 2013 · Leave a Comment

The Reef Rescue Grazing Forum 2013

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The Reef Rescue Grazing Forum was held in Mackay on the 13th March at the Mackay Entertainment Centre. Sponsored by the Federal Government’s Reef Rescue program and Meat and Livestock Australia, the Forum brought together graziers, scientists and industry representatives to share ideas and discuss the best ways to improve pastures and increase profits from sustainable grazing.

Running for its second year, the forum covered topics such as beef cattle nutrition, dung beetles, wild dog control, using fire for pasture improvement, giant rats tail grass control, native forestry and carbon farm management.

The Reef Rescue Grazing forum attracted more than 200 participants over the two days including more than 150 graziers involved within the grazing industry in the Mackay Whitsunday region. Feedback from the day was very positive with Rod McFadzen, a grazier from Sarina highlighting the forum as a “great opportunity to discuss coastal grazing issues with other graziers, scientists and industry experts”.

Experts were on hand all day in a display area, so graziers could discuss issues such as; lantana control, re-vegetation techniques on the tropical coast, solar pumps for stock water, dung beetles, the Reef Rescue program, wild dog control and much more.

Workshops were held the following day (March 14th) offering graziers the opportunity to delve further into issues that are impacting their businesses. Alan Laing from DAFF in Ayr discussed Beef Cattle Nutrition followed by a Feed Budgeting workshop led by Jim Fletcher from DAFF Queensland, while John Feehan, the Dung Beetle Expert led a group of 30 participants on a paddock walk near Sarina.

The Reef Rescue Grazing Forums held over the last two years has been a huge success and Reef Catchments endeavours to continue to develop links with an increasing number of clients and stakeholders within the Mackay Whitsunday region.

Reef Catchments Reef Rescue Grazing Leader, Michael Boyd welcomes 150 graziers to the forum.IMG_3135 copy

Meat and Livestock Australia representative, Geoff Niethe during his presentation about the potential and future of the Beef Industry in the Mackay, Whitsunday regionIMG_3050 copy

John Feehan, the Dung Beetle Expert let us get up close with his Dung Beetles.IMG_3142 copy   IMG_3039 copy

Alan Laing from DAFF in Ayr & Jim Fletcher from DAFF Queensland discuss Beef Cattle Nutrition and Feed Budgeting in a workshop.

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Australian Carbon Traders, Ben Keogh explains various Carbon Farm Management OptionsIMG_3087 copy

Ball Bay and Blacks Beach Spit

Jaylan · Apr 29, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Community volunteers at Ball Bay got a crash course in the invasive weed Mother of Millions at a Coastcare Activity on April 13, removing around 200kg from the dunes. Mother of Millions, as the name suggests, can rapidly reproduce – with ‘plantlets’ forming on the leaf edges which fall off and form new plants.

“Mother of Millions can be a difficult weed to control,” said Coastal Coordinator Kerri Woodcock. “It can form dense infestation in coastal dunes and is easily spread to new areas.”

Whilst a few methods of control are available, hand pulling was the method of choice for this community working bee.

“In areas where the infestation is confined to a relatively small area, such as at Ball Bay, hand pulling is the preferred method,’ Ms Woodcock said. “There are herbicides which can be used to control the plants, but they are quite harsh chemicals which can impact on the native vegetation, hand pulling is a far less invasive method and one which volunteers can get involved with.”

Those who helped out on the day remarked at the difference that could be seen in those areas where the weed had been removed, and were enthusiastic to continue the work at future Coastcare Activities.

The afternoon saw the Coastcare team head to Blacks Beach Spit where 16 community volunteers removed over a tonne of rubbish from this important reserve in just two hours. The 42 hectare Spit, which is now wholly managed by Mackay Regional Council, had become a site for illegal dumping. Mackay Regional Council has already removed nearly 150 tonnes of rubbish from the site, but plenty of small debris still remains.

“Blacks Beach Spit has substantial natural values, and supports wildlife populations of national and international significance,” said Claire Bartron, Reef Catchments Coastal Project Officer. “It was great to work with a diverse group of community members who care for the environmental and community value of this important reserve.”

“We had a group of 16 come out to take part in the clean-up,” Ms Bartron said. “To see a mix of parents with young children, teenagers, and older residents all showing their support for the work being undertaken to rehabilitate Blacks Beach Spit was very heartening.”

During high tide events large areas of Blacks Beach Spit get inundated by water, meaning it is all too easy for the litter to be carried out to sea and start impacting on marine animals.

“One of the most satisfying parts of the day was getting to talk to some of the kids,” said Ms Bartron, “their knowledge of the natural environment was amazing, they understood that by removing the litter from the land they were helping out marine animals that ingest rubbish when they mistake it for food, and often die as a result.”

With the success of the day and the interest expressed by volunteers for future events Reef Catchments will be adding more clean ups at Blacks Beach Spit to their Winter Coastcare Activities Calendar.

To volunteer at Coastcare Activities in 2013, or subscribe to emails to find out what projects are happening on our coast, email claire.bartron@reefcatchments.com or call 0429 155 841.

Coasts and Communities is a joint initiative of Mackay Regional Council and Reef Catchments with support from Mackay Regional Council’s Natural Environment Levy and the Australian Government’s Caring for Our Country initiative.

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Image:  Volunteers load rubbish into the trailer to be taken away

Healthy Waterways – Native Trees for Healthy Rivers

Jaylan · Apr 29, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Riparian Revegetation – why do it?

The riparian area is the part of the landscape adjoining rivers and streams that has a direct influence on the water and aquatic ecosystems within them. It includes the stream banks and a strip of land of variable width along the banks.

When properly vegetated, these transitional boundaries between land and water environments act as buffers to protect surface waters from contamination. Riparian zones also reduce sedimentation of water bodies by reducing the erosive potential of stream banks, and provide permanent habitat for many species, from tiny microorganisms to birds and larger fauna. Healthy riparian zones provide and support many ecosystem services, improve aesthetics and water quality, and provide shade, reducing stream temperature. Riparian zones can provide great amounts of biodiversity to the landscape and are well worth protecting and enhancing.

Gregory River Revegetation

Reef Catchments’ Healthy Waterways team has been working with land managers and contractors on the Gregory River this month to revegetate two riparian sites near Dingo Beach Road Bridge. Around 200 metres of streambank were cleared of thick stands of elephant grass (an opportunistic weed with the ability to out-compete native vegetation), and have been planted out with native endemic trees. The two revegetation sites join with existing vegetation to extend the riparian corridor. Planting on one site adjoins a lifestyle block, and on the other, prime agricultural land used for growing sugarcane. When established the revegetated area will help protect this valuable production land from losses due to streambank erosion.

Gregory River site 1 before and after riparian revegetation works

   Gregory River before revegetation works   Gregory River after revegetation works

O’Connell River Engineered Log Jam Demonstration Site Reveg

The Healthy Waterways team has also been working on the final phase of the engineered log jam demonstration reach on the O’Connell River at Bloomsbury this month. The 200-metre stretch of streambank above the structures was revegetated with 1280 native tress and shrubs endemic to the O’Connell River region. In a lucky turn of events the plants went in just in time for the April rain so are off to a great start. Rio Tinto’s Hail Creek Mine Community Development Fund and Reef Catchments staff will plant a final 300 trees at the site during a Sunday celebration of project partnership in May.

The latest time-lapse videos and photos from this demonstration project can be seen on the Reef Catchments River Restoration webpage, including photos of fish enjoying their new log jam habitat!

Jock Hansen from Mackay Green Solutions and Reef Catchments’ Healthy Waterways project officer Melanie McSwiney – O’Connell River log jam revegetation

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Proserpine Office Opening

Jaylan · Apr 29, 2013 · Leave a Comment

The official opening of the new Reef Catchments Proserpine office was held on the 28th March 2013. Officiated by Federal Member for Dawson, George Christenson and Whitsunday Regional Council Mayor, Jennifer Whitney the new address was bustling with guests for the event.

With the decision to open the Proserpine Office, the Reef Catchments team was congratulated on the expansion and welcomed to the Whitsunday region. With Reef Catchments servicing the region for many years out of Mackay, this is an exciting opportunity to further generate a greater presence within the region. Rob Cocco, CEO of Reef Catchments was delighted to “now be more engaged and in tune with the local community with a strong focus on the local Whitsunday area”.

Speaking at the opening, George Christenson referred to the Reef Catchments vision recognising the balance “to work collaboratively with the community to improve the condition of natural resources while sharing in their derived benefits”.

The Proserpine office is open Monday – Friday, 9am-5pm and is located on 45 Main Street Proserpine.

Member for Dawson George Christensen and Reef Catchments Chair Royce Bishop presented Reef Catchments CEO Robert Cocco with a plark recognising the new Reef Catchment office in Proserpine. 

Photo: Rhianna Bull / Whitsunday Times

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George Christensen and Royce Bishop cutting the ribbon officially opening the Proserpine Office.

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Whitsunday Regional Council Mayor, Jennifer Whitney with Royce Bishop and George Christensen speaking at the opening.

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Reef Catchments CEO, Rob Cocco thanking special guests and the committed team of people who joined him in celebrating the opening of the Proserpine Office.

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P2R (Paddock to Reef) Wet season monitoring upgrade

Jaylan · Apr 22, 2013 · Leave a Comment

The Reef Catchments Mackay Whitsunday Paddock monitoring program has almost completed its fourth year of wet season sugarcane production monitoring. In this latest year the program has undergone an upgrade with two new treatments added to the Victoria Plains site that provide us with water quality data on banded herbicide application in contrast with broadcast application. With four treatments now operating successfully at this site we are also looking forward to comparing results of Six Easy Steps and conventional nutrient applications at different row spacing (1.5m and 1.8m).

Part of the upgrade included removing monitoring equipment from the Marian Site; which suffered badly with flooding affecting the quality of the data collected. This site will be maintained for productivity analysis and we hope to conduct some rainfall simulation to gather more water quality information from the site. Two of the sets of monitoring equipment have been moved to the Victoria Plains Site.

Monitoring of the multi-farm site at Sandy Creek continues, however equipment has been removed from the multi-block site at Marian, which was also affected by flooding.

As the wet season is coming to a close the team at DNRM is working hard to analyse the data and we will share the learning’s later in the year.

What have we learned so far?

With three years of monitoring completed there have been some clear findings that can be used by growers to save money and keep their product in the paddock.

Forecasting information is important: The longer the window between application of herbicide and nutrients and a runoff event the greater the reduction in product lost to runoff.

Incorporate your product: Runoff of herbicides and nutrients is reduced with overhead irrigation, or when timed close to a light rainfall (that does not runoff).

Rate does matter: Matching nutrient rates to accurate estimation of  crop yield results in less nutrient found in runoff.

The monitoring team is bringing together the previous three years of monitoring and in May we will have a full report to share.  The report will analyse these findings and more.

Image: Installing new flumes

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Image: Flume with runoff 

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Image: Harvesting the trials 2012

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