Mosaic Map: NRM funded projects
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site specific
region wide
Cleaning up the Basin
Lake Eyre, the vast salt lake at Australia's centre, is relatively untarnished by weeds and feral animals - so far.
But the 1.2 million square kilometre basin that crosses four state borders to feed water to the lake, is not so lucky. And, unless pests are controlled in the area, it's only a matter of time before they reach isolated Lake Eyre.
So Queensland locals are doing their bit to prevent this happening. Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) is tackling the impacts of weeds and feral animals on biodiversity and production, through its Cross-Catchments Weeds and Feral Animals Initiative.
Funding
The Initiative received more than $1.1 million from the Australian and State Governments through the DCQ regional natural resource management body. Funding has also come from the National Weeds Program, the National Landcare Program and from the region's landholders.
Activities and achievements
"The Basin community has identified weeds and feral animals as the number one issue for their area," said DCQ's Brett Carlsson. "Weeds and feral animals are cited as the major threat to biodiversity values in several of the regional ecosystem types within Desert Channels.
"We can get trapped into looking at the issue in just one place, but pests don't take any notice of lines on a map. We're all aiming for the one goal so it's important to get everybody working together."
A big step in this direction will be a major interstate forum sponsored by the project to get all those involved together.
Other major collaborative exercises include work with 14 shires in the Queensland Lake Eyre Basin to develop a regional local government pest management strategy and the development of a three year survey to map weeds and pest animals.
But apart from strategic and planning exercises, much of Brett's time is spent face-to-face with landholders, giving advice and helping with pest management control, and sometimes pointing people in the direction of incentive payments available under the Weeds and Feral Animals Initiative.
"Landholder awareness is the big issue; making sure they can identify weeds and know how to deal with them," Brett said. "People frequently don't realise the plant they see so often is a weed.
"They don't know what to do to control it, not just spraying or digging it out, but taking steps like quarantining animals coming from other areas and washing down vehicles."
More information
- Brett Carlsson, CCWFAI Project Officer: brett.carlsson@dcq.org.au
- Desert Channels Queensland: www.dcq.org.au
- Lake Eyre Basin: www.lakeeyrebasin.org.au
See also
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