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Action in the Coorong reduces salinity
Landholders and the local Council in the Coorong district have helped reduce groundwater recharge - the major cause of dryland salinity - by 20 per cent.
Dryland salinity is the one of the most serious environmental issues facing the region, with 50,000 hectares of land affected.
Luckily the Coorong District Soil Conservation Board acted early to stop the problem getting worse.
Back in 1994 the Board talked to landholders and environmental experts to find out what sort of land management problems were facing the region as well as the best ways of addressing them. This helped develop the Coorong District Local Action Plan.
Funding
Work under the Plan started in 1997 and $140,000 in funding from the Australian Government's Natural Heritage Trust programme and support from the State Government went towards a landholder grants scheme.
Lesley Cameron, Local Action Plan Implementation Officer with the Coorong District Council, said the scheme was enormously successful.
"No individual can solve a problem as widespread and serious as salinity, but with a district-wide effort and a range of practical options available for different properties, we're making a real difference," she said.
Activities
"The Local Action Plan covers a large area - 1 million hectares, from Tailem Bend in the north down to Salt Creek in the south - and so far we've helped two thirds of the landholders in the region with practical work to reduce recharge.
"We provide, on average, 200 grants per year and 85 per cent of external funding sought has been spent directly on-ground."
The grants fund a range of from fencing native plants and wetlands and creating windbreaks to establishing of perennial pastures.
"These pastures are vital to the management of dryland salinity in the area. We encourage the use of species such as lucerne, which absorbs almost as much water as native plants," Lesley said.
"Since 1997, we estimate around 100,000 hectares of perennials have been planted thanks to the work we're doing.
"Since the Local Action Plan was developed, landholders are definitely more aware of dryland salinity and the benefits of planting perennials. By talking to the farmers, they get excited about natural resource management and are usually keen to get involved."
In total the Coorong Local Action Plan has received around $6.5 million through the Natural Heritage Trust, the Australian and State-Government funded National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality, the River Murray Catchment Board, Coastcare and WWF-Australia.
More information
- Lesley Cameron, Local Action Plan Implementation Officer: (08) 8757 2100 or lcameron@coorong.sa.gov.au
- Coorong District Council
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