Archives for April 2015

Landholders learn how to identify and eradicate Pond Apple outbreak

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Pond Apple is regarded as one of the worst weeds in Australia because of its invasiveness.
Pond Apple is regarded as one of the worst weeds in Australia because of its invasiveness.

Landholders in the local Mackay region attended a Pond Apple information session, following a recent discovery of a small incursion on a property in Habana.

The information session allowed participants to view and identify the Pond Apple specimen before watching a demonstration on how to appropriately poison and eradicate an outbreak.

Reef Catchments project officer Iona Flett said the Pond Apple tree had been discovered during a monitoring walk as part of on-going surveillance funded through the Queensland Government NRM Program, which helps ensure the Mackay area remains free of the weed species.

“The tree was found on a creek line and was fruiting. It is a concern and it is critical we alert landholders to the fact that Pond Apple control may need to be taken, because there have been no new outbreaks in the Mackay region for quite some time,” she said.

“As a region, we have been very successful in an on-ground approach to eradicating Pond Apple, thanks to terrific cooperation from landholders. We want to make sure this continues and would encourage all landholders in the area to come along next Tuesday and see first-hand how to manage any incursions they might find.

“Pond Apple has the potential to significantly impact the natural areas of the Mackay Whitsunday region and can also affect our agricultural industries, including cane and grazing.”

‘Pond Apple’ (Annona Glabra) is regarded as one of the worst weeds in Australia because of its invasiveness, potential for spread and economic and environmental impacts. Infestations were first reported in Mackay in 2009, with outbreaks identified in Andergrove and more widely in the Reliance Creek catchment. Thanks to several years of intensive on-ground eradication activity, the weed is being slowly but surely eradicated from the Mackay and Whitsunday region.

The Pond Apple eradication project is a joint initiative of Reef Catchments, Pioneer Catchment and Landcare Group, Mackay Regional Council and the Mackay Regional Pest Management Group, through funding from the Queensland Government.

Case Study: Stabilising stream banks along the O’Connell River

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Management Interventions to improve Ecosystem Health

 Case Study – Alluvium Consulting Report to stabilise stream banks along the O’Connell River.

Work in progress on the O'Connell River site.
Work in progress on the O’Connell River site.

 

McConnell River after works downstream view.
After works downstream view.
McConnell River after works upstream view.
After works upstream view.

Stream bank erosion is a major source of sediment in many watercourses. This has multiple implications including degrading water quality, reducing ecosystem habitat and the loss of agricultural land on productive alluvial floodplains.

One of the focuses for improving water quality and ecosystem health in the Mackay Whitsunday region is to stabilise stream banks.

A study has been undertaken to assess stream bank loss and stability of the O’Connell River. A significant proportion of the sediment supply is understood to be from channel erosion with the report seeking to understand the cause of erosion, identify the locations of significant sediment loss, the extent in which it is happening and also the potential for future channel erosion along the river.

To undertake this study a number of tools were utilised including aerial imagery analysis, terrain modelling, hydraulic modelling and field inspections.

Interpretation of the terrain modelling results have highlighted areas of significant channel erosion by comparing digital elevation models (DEM) from LiDar between 2010 and 2014. When the two DEM’s are overlaid a DEM of difference allows quantification of the loss of sediment during the four-year timeframe. Using this comparison the report heighted 31 sites of major bank loss loosing between 1 000m3   to 65 000m3 in the four years between the DEM’s.

The Hydraulic modelling is effective at identifying the management intervention necessary to ensure that the bank does not continue to erode after a management intervention by calculating the stream power along the river. With lower stream power the bank can be stabilised with revegetation alone, however with higher stream power more effort is needed to maintain bank stability.

When the terrain and hydraulic modelling results are interpreted together, major sites of potential erosion have been identified. These sites have high stream power together with large areas of alluviul floodplain with the potential to be eroded.

With major sites identified, Reef Catchments has been engaging landholders to implement bank stabilisation projects which will halt the loss of sediment from the banks and allow the alluvial plains to continue to be utilised for agricultural production.

Reef Catchments is working with landholders to implement a range of different measures including rock toes, pile fields and log jams. All initiatives will include bank revegetation, which will maintain bank stability to reduce the sediment loads within the O’Connell and maintain productive alluvial floodplain.

Currently Reef Catchments has undertaken one major project identified from the report to stabilise a bank which has lost 10 000m3 between 2010 and 2014. One dimensional hydraulic modelling identified five potential option ranging from poor to high likelihood of success. Engaging with the landholder and identifying available resources, a two metre rock toe with bank reprofiling was chosen.

Large woody debris will also be embedded to create habitat and the bank will be revegetated to ensure long term bank stabilisation.

A Little Help From Our Friends

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Photograph of soil illustrating soil health– Article provided by Rob Eccles, Sustainable Agriculture Manager, Catchment Solutions

Is there no good microbe other than a dead microbe? Certainly most of our experiences and taught behaviours of the last century would lead to that belief. For good reason we do things like wash our hands and are prescribed antibiotics. None of us are alive now that know any different.

However, in agriculture it does not always hold true that all microbes do harm.

It could be said in the big picture sense; that research is now merely refining the discoveries made previously in pesticides, fertiliser and conventional plant breeding. Mankind has already achieved the simple things and made the major break throughs in these fields. Many are now saying the next “green revolution” increments will come from the use of beneficial microbes.

This is not such a big step as microbes are already in our daily lives. We eat bread, cheese and yogurt made with microbes. We drink alcoholic beverages made with microbes. For the last 50 years we have been coating legume seed with species specific strains of rhizobia bacteria to efficiently fix nitrogen into our crops and soil. We swallow probiotics to inoculate our digestive tracts with beneficial microbes to improve our health. Finally, many of our antibiotics actually are made by microbes.

Science, the process of systematic investigation, is the best invention mankind has ever made. I am disappointed how the poor use of science by many pushing microbial products has actually set back wide industry adoption by 10 to 20 years. This has occurred because it is an unregulated market not requiring the registration of products like agrichemicals and fertilisers. There are some poor products and salesman with inadequate knowledge and understanding out there. Merely mentioning the topic commonly leads to snickers and accusation of quackery by most in the industry be they scientists, agronomists, farmers, rural resellers or even the general public. This has lead to the poor investments by research bodies and extension organisations.

I believe we will not feed the growing world population for much longer without them. The cane industry will not recover from its decline in yield without their reintroduction. I say reintroduction because these are microbial organisms that have always lived beside and within wild sugarcane plants and their ancestors over the last 10’s and 100’s of millions of years. Except for modern agricultural practices and the necessity of a highly effective quarantine system on imported breeding lines our sugarcane plants have never lived without them before.

If sugarcane is like the other grasses studied such as ryegrass, tall fescue and cereals its health and productivity can be increased by identifying and inoculating these microbes back. For this reason in 2014: I instigated the meeting and collaboration of our SRA and New Zealand’s AgResearch into working together in finding these beneficial organisms and discovering what they do and how to restore them back into commercial sugarcane.

We have now made this into a funding application. The literature review to support the application has uncovered a significant number of published research papers identifying many beneficiary organisms already known (see graphic below).

Biology

Noting all these organisms need scientific validation of their suspected benefits, here is a quick description of what they do:

Diazotrophic (bacteria): These live on and in leaves, in roots and in the rhizosphere around roots. They fix nitrogen and offer some disease protection. A non-host species specific commercial line was released in 2009.

Azospirillium (bacteria): Live in the rhizosphere around roots. They fix nitrogen and often need a third organism to be present for them to function. Strains are now ready for commercialisation.

Burkholderia australis (bacteria): A nitrogen fixer.

Free living rhizobia (bacteria): A nitrogen fixer. Already present in our sugarcane fields. Research is needed to improve their effectiveness.

VAM (Fungus): Short for vesicular arbuscular mycorrihiza, this fungi lives inside and outside of roots. It networks cane plants between themselves and other plants. Assists the plant by improving nutrient uptake, offers some pest and disease protection and encourages other beneficial microbes. It is being commercialised now.

Epichloe Endophyte (fungi): This is very species specific. Fungal species that were compatible to ryegrass and tall fescue were reintroduced commercially during the 1990’s and now over $30 billion dollars of agricultural production worldwide use them annually. Cereals types are near release. These fungi are only suspected to be present in wild sugarcane species. These can live only inside their host. In other species they assist the plant in repelling pests, disease, improve plant’s tolerance to drought and heat stress plus improve tillering and biomass.

There are likely to be thousands of yet to be discovered organisms available in the wild cane species in their native environments. Restoring them into or beside our sugarcane plants could offer many benefits.

Unique market takes sustainable stems to Europe and beyond

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Sarina landholders Ross and Angela Bailey are making the most of a unique market for the blades of Xanthorrhoea.
Sarina landholders Ross and Angela Bailey are making the most of a unique market for the blades of Xanthorrhoea.

The harsh and rocky terrain that sees native scrub flourish south of Sarina might seem a far cry from the romance of a bouquet of flowers in Europe.

But a unique market for the blades of the well-known Xanthorrhoea (more commonly known as grass trees) sees thousands of stems exported annually from the Mackay region to exotic locations around the world.

From China to New York and Paris, our native stems are in demand by florists for their texture and longevity. Blades of Australian greenery are used in floral arrangements across continents.

“The foliage harvested by landholders in the Sarina and Koumala area goes primarily to Europe and North America, where we market it as ‘Steel Grass’ because of its strength and ability to hold its shape,” says Andy Driscoll. “It’s very popular because it has a shelf life of up to 6 weeks and provides a hardy green leaf that can be used in the winter of the northern hemisphere.”

Andy is the area manager for Cedar Hills Flowers & Foilage, who have been exporting products from Australia to the global floral industry for more than twenty years.

He says Xanthorrhoea is the perfect example of an almost truly sustainable crop – a native plant that is abundant in certain regions of Queensland that grows on its own terms, with no inputs required.

“It’s incredibly light as far as environmental impact goes, it is absolutely sustainable,” Andy says.

“Xanthorrhoea grows completely naturally and on top of that, it is quite a stringent process in terms of getting a license to harvest Australian native cut foliage. It is done with regular evaluation to monitor ecological impact and under strict government guidelines.”

Sarina landholders Angela and Ross Bailey have been hand harvesting Xanthorrhoea on their property and supplying direct to Cedar Hills for the last eight years.

They agree grass trees provide a uniquely sustainable market – not least because each tree will last for decades, thriving in its natural environment and regenerated by fire as it would have done pre-settlement.

“We also run cattle, but the grass tree plants we harvest from are just what was originally here, growing wild in the roughest and rockiest conditions on the property,” Angela says.

“They aren’t a crop as such, and it is the opposite of intensive farming – unlike something like cane, there is no need to plant, water or fertilise. Grass trees just happen to love the soil here and we work with what is naturally in abundance.”

The Baileys are currently the only landholders in the region who cut their own grass tree blades by hand. Cedar Hills contract staff to cut on other properties, but the ability to find and retain reliable staff in remote areas is difficult.

Cutting is certainly no easy task.

“When we harvest we’ll do up to five hours at a time and it’s pretty rough and rugged because of the conditions grass trees grow in, which is almost always on rocky hills,” Angela says.

“When you cut the plant, you always leave the heart and you take the stems from around the centre, leaving it to grow again. We use a sickle to cut it by hand, then sort and bundle it and move on to the next one – it’s pretty good exercise!”

Grass trees are a true part of the Australian native landscape and love fire. Reef Catchments is currently working with the Baileys to create a fire management plan tailored to their property.

“Flowering in the wild occurs after fire and in the absence of fire, xanthorrhoea will flower only when the season is good. Controlled use of fire can help the plant flower and provides a natural means of rejuvenating both plant and landscape health, in line with Australian ecological processes,” says Reef Catchments project officer, Kerensa McCallie.

“The plan will utilise the Clarke Connors Range Fire Management Guidelines to develop optimal fire regimes based on the three pillars of hazard reduction, primary production and biodiversity management.”

The Baileys are also eligible for Australian Government Reef Programme funding available through Reef Catchments.

Reef Catchments project officer, Iona Flett, said this would allow them to undertake a range of land management activities, including the installation of fencing and watering points.

“Ross and Angela have applied for incentives under the Rocky Dam Creek System Repair Project, and the Grazing Water Quality Grants Programme,” she said.

“This funding from the Australian Government allows landholders to improve their farm management practices for a double benefit – improved land productivity and reduced impact on the waterways that lead to the Great Barrier Reef.”

  • For more information on Cedar Hills Flowers & Foilage contact:
    Andy Driscoll | 0438 788 141      www.cedarhill.com.au