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North - Natural Resource Management region

Regional summary

The North region of Tasmania is renowned for its sea life, wildlife, wine, crags and beaches, and rich history. This region includes a variety of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, estuarine and marine ecosystems. Dairy herds graze rich pastures and the fertile red soil nourishes quality flowers and vegetables.

It covers 25,000 square kilometres and supports almost 135,000 people (28 percent of the state's population) in the municipalities of Break O'Day, Dorset, Flinders, George Town, Launceston, Meander Valley, Northern Midlands and West Tamar.

Habitats range from the vegetation and wildlife of the alpine heaths and moors of the dominating mountain plateaus of the Western Tiers and Ben Lomond, the economically important wet forests and swamps of the middle elevation, the drier forests and woodlands characteristic of the lower-rainfall rolling hills, to the sandy coastal hills and plains.

Priority issues

Key natural resource management issues in the region include:

• habitat loss and modification
• management of threatened populations, species and ecological communities
• weeds, pests and diseases
• water quality
• sustainable use of water resources
• decline in condition of wetlands and rivers
• loss and modification of coastal and marine habitat and associated vegetation and fauna, including the over-exploitation of fish resources
• decline in soil condition
• increasing salinity
• protection of geo-heritage values
• air quality

Regional plan

North Tasmania has long recognised the need to plan strategically for NRM. The Trust investment has played a key role in bringing together the contributions of landowners, community-based groups, local and state government bodies and businesses to achieve more coordinated and integrated results.

Activities have included whole farm planning, environmental incentive schemes, the Land for Wildlife programme and large sub-regional projects. The NRM North Committee was responsible for developing the North regional plan, in consultation with the local community. This plan was based on a whole-of-region approach and addresses significant NRM issues, incorporating social, environmental and economic aspects.

NRM North was responsible for developing the regional investment strategy. This is essentially the business plan that will be developed to attract investment from the Australian and state governments and details the specific actions, costs and timeframes required to implement the regional plan.

There are municipal-based NRM committees throughout the region, together with more than 120 environment-care groups. These groups have been actively involved in maintaining and enhancing the region's natural resources for more than a decade.

• North plan  - accredited August 2005

Current activities

NRM priority	Activities addressing the priority
Land salinity	investigating urban salinity in the Greater Launceston area understanding how groundwater flows contribute to salinity in the North Midlands investigating the productive use of salt affected land
Native vegetation communities	native vegetation communities Setting benchmarks for native vegetation condition
Estuarine, coastal and marine habitats	mapping of coastal vegetation, native animal habitat, land use and geomorphology across North East Tasmania development of an integrated management regime for Georges Bay
Turbidity and suspended matter in aquatic environments	development of an integrated rivercare plan for the Quamby Brook catchment and on-ground activities to address riparian management, effluent discharge and condition monitoring
Invasive species	investigation of the distribution of the pest fish species Gambusia holbrooki and possible control methods

Contacts

Further information can be obtained by contacting the Regional Facilitators for Tasmania.