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Monitoring helps landholders care for the land
Today's farmers recognise the need to keep up-to-date with new information on monitoring and managing natural resources.
As well as identifying land management issues like grazing, water quality and weeds and pests, a group of farmers in the Maranoa River area in southern Queensland has placed education, training and monitoring on its agenda.
"Monitoring the condition of natural resources is an important part of managing the land sustainably," said Mitchell Landcare Coordinator, Paul Fitzgerald.
Funding
The Queensland Murray Darling Committee Inc. (QMDC) has been given more than $430,000 from the Australian Government and State Governments to help put the Maranoa group's sub-catchment plan into action. Part of this is going towards training and monitoring
"This will help the Maranoa River group make the most of all the work they and QMDC staff have put into sub-catchment planning, and coming up with solutions for managing natural resources," Paul said.
Members of the group need to know when monitoring has to be done, what is to be monitored and how to do it in order to get an accurate picture of the sub-catchment area.
Activities
They aim to hold a field day every three months to increase their knowledge of issues and topics such as monitoring water quality, how to manage grazing to help control erosion and learning how to best cope with drought.
Training days will also be open to other landholders in the district and to local students.
Information gained from the monitoring activities will be made available to QMDC, the local Shire Council and other interested organisations to help with conservation management efforts across the region.
Achievements
The Maranoa River group was one of the first in the region to develop a sub-catchment plan and, by mid 2006, property owners were well on the way to developing individual property plans to fit in with the region.
"The members of the group are very committed," said Paul. "Before they became involved in the planning process many were developing environmental monitoring systems aimed at sustainable production.
"Other groups in the area are now learning from what this group has done."
More information
- Paul Fitzgerald, Mitchell Landcare Coordinator: mitchell-landcare1@bigpond.com
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