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New plan targets environmental icons
With increased understanding, a limited budget and dry conditions over the past 10 years, land managers in North Central Victoria are tackling salinity using a fresh approach.
The North Central Dryland Management Plan has taken 12 months to draft, integrating the latest research knowledge from hydrogeology, biology, farming systems, resource economics, social science and policy.
It combines national and international expertise with knowledge from the local community to present a comprehensive plan for managing salinity in dryland areas.
Funding
The Plan has been drafted with $27,000 from the Australian and State Governments, in partnership with the Cooperative Research Centre for Plant Based Management of Dryland Salinity.
Activities
"This is an Action Plan to enable the community, North Central Catchment Management Authority and governments to protect high-value environmental and built assets within the dryland region of North Central Victoria, from the threat of salinity," said Daniel Mudford from the Catchment Management Authority.
"It includes land, water and biodiversity as well as cultural heritage sites, towns and roads.
"The Plan began with a steering committee of community, government representatives and regional experts identifying 80 'high-value assets', for example rivers, wetlands, waterways, infrastructure, water resources."
Forty four of these were found to be at risk of salinity, 22 of which could realistically have work done to reduce the impact.
With the North Central Dryland region covering a daunting 2.2 million hectares, the Plan has focused on human-induced salinity.
"We wanted to achieve greater success than we have in the past, and we realised we had also learnt a lot about salinity over time," said Daniel. "We now understand the need to take a wider view of salinity and its impacts on all assets in the region, rather than mainly focusing on farmland impacts."
Activities to be carried out under the Plan include education, incentives, engineering, technology development, and further research and development.
Achievements
"In the past we thought we'd make a big impact by managing salinity in the worst areas," said Daniel. "But some of the important waterways and biodiversity might be lost before we have an impact, so now we realise the best investment of public money is to protect these high-value assets.
"We can't fix everything for everyone, and this way we're picking out the most important things in the region as a whole and focusing on them."
More information
- Daniel Mudford, Team Leader - Land, North Central Catchment Management Authority: (03) 5448 7124 or Daniel.Mudford@nccma.vic.gov.au
- North Central Catchment Management Authority website: www.nccma.vic.gov.au
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