Mosaic Map: NRM funded projects
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Tamar Estuarine Management Plan
There's more coast than land area in Tasmania, so it makes sense that one of the state's larger estuaries, the Tamar, is the focus of a $54,000 Best Practice Estuarine Management Plan.
The 12-month project will ensure the estuary's 100 square kilometres of seagrass meadows, extensive wetlands, foreshore reserves and conservation areas are protected.
These habitats are like no other coastal, estuarine or marine environment in the state - the Tamar Estuary is the only mesotidal (two to four metre tidal range) drowned river valley in Tasmania.
It drains approximately 18 per cent of Tasmania from two of the state's largest rivers and is home to many different fish and invertebrates found nowhere else in the state.
Funding
The project is funded by the Australian Government through the NRM North regional group, with additional support provided by the Tasmanian Government.
Activities
Project Manager Amanda Locatelli from SFM Environmental said the Tamar Estuary Management Plan would for the first time catalogue the natural values of the Estuary and prioritise these to protect species like the endangered Swamp Paperbark Forest and the vulnerable listed White Bellied Sea Eagle.
"The estuary is significant because it has a considerable population living around it with impacts from urban, agricultural, and industrial land uses" Amanda said.
"We have the ability to manage these impacts by raising awareness in the community of the special values worth protecting. We can also improve some of the complex management arrangements surrounding the estuary by working with local and state government to ensure it's managed in a cooperative way."
Challenges include a large urban population in the lower catchment and land disturbance in the upper catchment resulting in silt being deposited in the estuary. This leads to active dredging to maintain shipping channels for navigation, and rising mudflats along the shoreline.
The estuary is also badly affected by introduced species such as rice grass, the East Asian bag mussel and the pacific oyster.
Water pollution is a major threat and can come from a variety of sources, including industrial pollution and stormwater runoff.
The loss of habitat for native animals and plants has also been identified as a key threat and can be caused by things like foreshore development, the introduction of weeds and pests and the removal of foreshore plants.
More information
- Amanda Locatelli, Project manager, SFM Environmental: (03) 6333 0371
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