Archives for December 2014

New Program Aims to Improve Land Management and Condition

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Trees in the Mackay Whitsunday area
Funding opportunity exists for land managers in priority areas.

Reef Catchments has a new funding opportunity for property owners to increase productivity, make property management easier and improve biodiversity.

Incentives are available to help property owners implement a range of management activities on their land.

Activities covered under this program will focus on good land management practices that also reduce threats to biodiversity such as weed control, revegetation, fire and feral animal management.

Maintaining riparian corridors is also a high priority, as they play a key role in landscape health and improved water quality.

Funding is also available for fencing vegetation types which helps better manage pastures, stock and reduces erosion risk as well as having beneficial environmental outcomes.

Kerensa McCallie, Reef Catchments Senior project officer said the new program worked with land managers to achieve outcomes to benefit both agriculture and biodiversity.

“This program expands and complements the existing programs offered by Reef Catchments through the Australian Government Reef Programme and we would encourage land managers who may be eligible for funding to contact us for more information,” she said

The new range of incentives will be targeted to priority areas that have been identified as critical habitat for nationally threatened ecosystems and species in the Mackay Whitsunday region.

For a full list of eligible activities, or for further information please contact Kerensa McCallie on 0429 033 541 or email kerensa.mccallie@reefcatchments.com and request an Expression of Interest Form.

These can then be posted back to PO Box 1096 Proserpine QLD 4800.

Expressions of interest close on 16 January 2015. To download an EOI please CLICK HERE.

 

Systems Repair funding increases irrigation capacity

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Rehabilitation works at Chane Cowley's property, Bakers Creek
Rehabilitation works at Shane Cowley’s property, Bakers Creek. Shane has been able to increase the on-farm water supply available for cane farm irrigation by installing a sediment detention basin and second flush chamber directly upstream from his wetland.

Systems Repair funding increases irrigation capacity and helps improve water quality entering local waterways.

Bakers Creek sugarcane grower, Shane Cowley, has been able to increase the on-farm water supply available for cane farm irrigation by installing a sediment detention basin and second flush chamber directly upstream from his wetland, which flows into Bakers Creek.

With assistance from the Australian Government’s Systems Repair program, Shane was able to build a 1 ML first flush detention basin that catches most of the sediment in the runoff water entering his farm.

A second flush chamber was also created, consisting of a long deep marsh (sedges) zone for filtering nutrients and fine sediment from the water. The second flush chamber features a 3 ML waterhole at its end to supply irrigation water.

The water flows over a rock weir at the end of the waterhole into Shane’s wetland, ensuring cleaner re-oxygenated water entering the wetland.

The project has been successful, and is set to deliver both environmental and production benefits.

“This extra water means that I can irrigate those nearby cane blocks several more times each year and significantly increase their production, as well as improving the water quality for my wetland and the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon,” Shane said.

A rock ramp fishway was incorporated at the exit of the wetland, enabling both scour protection and fish connectivity with downstream habitats. Shane is also a keen fisherman and hopes the fishway will help attract barramundi into the wetland.

Systems Repair project funding available to farmers is an additional source of funding, separate from the Reef Programme water quality grants (formerly Reef Rescue).

Reef Catchments worked together with Shane on this project to provide help with the system design and funding for up to 50% of the costs. The project was recently completed with the additional structures now filling from recent rainfall events. The wetland has also been revegetated with native plants to restore habitat and connectivity.

Reef Catchments to explore carbon opportunities for land managers

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Cattle in the Mackay/Whitsunday area
Land managers are invited to learn about potential carbon opportunities under the Emissions Reduction Fund.

The Emissions Reduction Fund is the centrepiece of the Australian Government’s policy suite to reduce emissions. The fund will provide incentives for emissions reduction activities across the Australian economy.

The Carbon Farming Initiative Amendment Bill 2014 was passed by the Senate on 31 October 2014 and the House of Representatives on 24 November 2014. Legislative rules and amendments are yet to be completed and once finalised, will be administered by the Clean Energy Regulator.

Though policy is still being finalised, Reef Catchments is seeking to work with land managers interested in changing land management practices to potentially receive carbon payments.

“Reef Catchments is exploring opportunities to aggregate emission reduction activities across the region, taking a coordinated approach to ensure land managers receive the best advice and carbon payment options,” said Robyn Bell, Reef Catchments climate coordinator.

“To receive carbon payments an activity that is reducing emissions / or sequestering carbon must use an approved methodology. “

Approved methodologies to date under the existing Carbon Farming Initiative that are relevant to the local region include:

Agriculture

  • Reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in beef cattle through feeding nitrate containing supplements
  • Sequestering carbon in soils in grazing systems

Vegetation (regrowth, reforestation, avoided clearing and avoided harvest)

  • Environmental Plantings
  • Human-induced regeneration of a permanent even-aged native forest
  • Measurement based methods for new farm forestry plantations
  • Native forest from managed regrowth
  • Native forest protection (avoided deforestation)
  • Reforestation and afforestation (the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no forest)

New tracking program to shed light on turtle’s journey

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A female flatback turtle with tracking transmitter
A new project will use transmitters to find out where the female Flatback turtles that nest on Mackay’s beaches go once they have laid their eggs.

A new project, funded by Mackay Regional Council’s Natural Environment Levy, is seeing adult female Flatback Turtles (Natator depressus) fitted with satellite transmitters to find out where the female turtles that nest on Mackay’s beaches go once they have laid their eggs.

Four turtles will have transmitters fitted this season, with three attached so far. The turtles are now actively sending back data to help us understand the movements of the Flatback species.

The transmitters, which are fitted with a special webbing harness, will send back data for up to a year. Using satellite telemetry, the transmitters will relay information each time receivers break the surface of the water when the turtles come up to breath.

This will allow researchers to track their movements, with the community also invited on the journey – anyone can jump online to see where the turtles have been by heading to www.seaturtle.org

This project goes a long way to increasing the knowledge about the turtles that nest along our coastline, which in turn will help efforts to conserve these iconic creatures and ensure their return to our region each year.

Grower Case Study: Simon Mattsson, multi-species intercrop trial (Marian)

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GROWER CASE STUDY: SIMON MATTSSON, MULTI-SPECIES INTERCROP TRIAL (MARIAN) 

Simon Mattsson video

Background

Simon Mattsson has a sugarcane farm on the north side of the Pioneer River at Marian. Sugarcane farmers in the Mackay region have been experiencing a decline in production over the last 15 years which Simon believes is due in part to declining soil health from the long-term sugarcane monoculture. This cropping system has lead to declining levels of soil carbon and reduced diversity in the soil biology.

The idea for this trial came from Simon’s Nuffield Scholarship trip to the United States where corn farmers in North Dakota have shown that growing a range and diversity of plant species within their corn crops has significantly improved the soil health. Plant and crop diversity also increased the spectrum of species within the soil biology populations, in turn increasing soil carbon and nitrogen fixation and increasing the uptake of all nutrients. This led to yield being maintained while significantly decreasing usage of chemical fertilisers.

Solution Trialled

With help from Reef Catchments Sustainable Agriculture Program, Simon has established a multi-species intercrop trial over four hectares. Within the trial, three treatments have been replicated four times. Eight species of plants are being used within these treatments and these include: radish, turnip, chickpea, soybean, common vetch, sunflowers, cereal rye and oats along with use of more biologically friendly fertilisers. Plant species are planted beside the sugarcane stool after harvest.

This trial seeks to determine if growing diverse plant species alongside the sugarcane can help to increase fixation of soil carbon and nitrogen, improve nutrient cycling and improve the spectrum and diversity of soil biology and therefore soil health.

The three treatments consist of:

  1. A control which is the sugarcane monoculture with standard chemical fertilisers.
  2. Sugarcane with 4 of the 8 multispecies (oats, cereal rye, turnip and common vetch) but using alternative fertilisers to supply the same amount of nutrients as the control.
  3. All 8 of the multispecies with the same alternative fertiliser products.

This is the first year of the trial with the multispecies being planted in mid-July following harvest of the cane in late June. The multispecies were then sprayed out and crimp rolled in early October to speed up the biological break down and the release of stored nutrient back to the cane crop.

Results

Result analysis is underway, with the first set of soil sampling recently taken by Dr Graham Stirling, with further analyses to be done in December and again in February.

Soil analyses will include soil biology, forms of soil carbon and macro and micro-nutrients. Sugarcane yields will also be measured from each of the replications.

The benefits of this cropping system are expected to be many and varied and will take time, possibly more than one growing season, to show.

Anticipated benefits to be measured include improved nutrient cycling and uptake of nutrients, increased soil carbon levels, weed suppression, water retention in dry periods and improved drainage during heavy rainfall events.

In the longer term Simon hopes this will lead to longer ratoon cycles through improved soil health, a more resilient and robust sugarcane crop and production benefits associated with significantly reduced inputs.

Follow this trial
To follow the trial and keep up to date with Simon’s results find Simon Mattsson on Facebook, or contact Reef Catchments (Peter Muller) on (07) 4968 4234 |
E: peter.muller@reefcatchments.com

 

This trial is part of Reef Catchments Sustainable Agriculture Program, with funding from the Australian Government. It is supported through the Nuffield Agricultural Scholarship, with funding from Sugar Research Australia.

Natural Resource Management Plan 2014-2024 set to launch

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Natural Resource Management Plan 2014-2024A final draft of the new Natural Resource Management Plan for Mackay, Whitsunday and Isaac has been approved by the Reef Catchments Board and contributing stakeholders across the community for its formal launch in February, 2015.

This follows a concluding period of open public comment, where community and stakeholders were again asked to provide final input to the plan and its supporting documents.

The NRM Plan has been developed collaboratively, with Reef Catchments pulling information together on behalf of a multitude of stakeholders, including local governments, industry bodies, Traditional Owners and the local community.

The plan provides the community and stakeholders an opportunity to have a say on how our land, water, coasts and islands should be managed for the future.

As part of this, the key stakeholders to the NRM Plan, many of whom form part of the NRM Plan Development Committee, will be asked to formally sign the document at the launch to officially endorse the broad principles of the plan and the process behind it. The aim is to seek a level of commitment from stakeholders in implementing the agreed outcomes and management actions, while adding to the integrity of the plan as a collaborative effort.