This update represents just a handful of NRM projects among hundreds across Australia, which are made possible through funding from the Australian Government, state governments and others.
Collaborative Efforts supporting waterway health - NRM North, Tasmania
NRM North’s Tamar Estuary Management Taskforce is collaborating with farmers, environmental scientists, engineers, community organisations, and the public to install livestock-exclusion fencing along waterways and improve dairy effluent management.
The program has reduced pathogen concentrations by more than 7 per cent in the upper part of the Kanamaluka / Tamar Estuary and has improved water quality and river health across the catchment - a significant benefit for people, animals and other water users.
NRM North Chief Executive Officer Dr Jo Fearman said “While there is still a year of project activities to be completed, the Catchment Works Program has already demonstrated the power of collaboration in addressing environmental challenges and promoting sustainable practices,”
Traditional methods enhance carbon abatement project - Burnett Mary Regional Group, Queensland
Burnett Mary Regional Group (BMRG) is supporting Meerooni Warro Thornhill Aboriginal Corporation to regenerate land at Thornhill Station by engaging Land and Sea Rangers from Gidarjil Development Corporation to use Indigenous land management techniques for native forest regeneration and carbon abatement.
Using a combination of traditional mosaic and fire-stick farming practices, revegetation, and weed management, the pilot aims to create a credible market mechanism to improve biodiversity and climate outcomes and provide new income opportunities for landholders.
Seed bank safeguards North Coast – North Coast Local Land Services, New South Wales
North Coast Local Land Services is working in partnership with the Friends of the North Coast Regional Botanic Gardens and the North Coast Regional Landcare Network to develop a native seed bank while improving the ability of community and industry groups to collect, store, exchange, and supply native plant seed according to recognised ‘best practice’ standards.
Andy Vinter, Senior Land Services Officer with North Coast Local Land Services said “We are hoping the project will lead to an increase in the supply of local native plant stock to satisfy emerging biodiversity, revegetation, and carbon sequestration programs in the region.”
Outcomes of the Turning Gardeners into Conservationists project – Perth NRM, Western Australia
The University of Western Australia and Perth NRM partnered on the Turning Gardeners into Conservationists project - a three-year citizen science project that explored vertebrate use of gardens and wildlife-friendly structures, such as nesting boxes and ponds, in residential gardens of southwestern Australia.
With over 15,000 wildlife surveys completed by more than 240 citizen scientists from Jurien Bay to Esperance, the project revealed that wildlife-friendly gardening not only contributes to biodiversity conservation but that it also fosters human wellbeing.
Read more here or see the full report here.
Connected tech gives birds a boost in Yalata Indigenous Protected Area - Alinytjara Wilurara, South Australia
The Alinytjara Wiluṟara Landscape Board will partner with the Yalata Aṉangu Aboriginal Corporation to protect the vulnerable eastern hooded plover and malleefowl from predation by foxes and cats in a new trial funded by the South Australian Government’s Landscape Priorities Fund (LPF).
The funding covers the purchase and operation of a network of satellite-connected Celium predator traps which can be remotely monitored from their locations across the Yalata Indigenous Protected Area. When a trap is activated, it sends an alert informing the rangers that an animal has been caught, reducing the need for travel over long distances and improving efficiency and safety for ranger teams.
Taking to the sky to tackle invasive weeds – North Central Catchment Management Authority, Victoria
North Central Catchment Management Authority (North Central CMA) and Goulburn-Murray Water are trialling an innovative approach to weed control in Gunbower Creek using drone-spraying technology to tackle the invasive pale-yellow water lily.
Pale-yellow water lily reduces creek capacity for irrigation and environmental flows, restricts sections of the creek for recreation, and impacts threatened native plant and fish species like the critically endangered silver perch and the threatened golden perch and Murray cod.
North Central CMA Project Manager Amy Russell said the drone enables crews to spray weeds that are inaccessible to boats. “The community is behind our goal to reduce the impact pale-yellow water lily has on the creek and prevent it from entering nearby wetlands such as Reedy Lagoon,” she said.
Oldest recorded Platypus astounds researchers – Melbourne Water, Victoria
The Melbourne Water waterways monitoring program (Urban Platypus Program) recently recaptured a 24-year-old male platypus – the oldest ever recorded in the wild. The platypus was first caught and tagged as a sub-adult in November 2000, and is believed to have lived his entire life in Monbulk Creek. The oldest previously known platypus was a female in the upper Shoalhaven River in New South Wales at 21 years old.
The Urban Platypus Program, in association with Ecology Australia and Cesar performs sampling to gather population health data of these cryptic monotremes.
Goats and roos targeted with priority funding – SA Arid Lands, South Australia
SA Arid Lands region has received $950,000 in grants from the Landscape Priorities Fund to coordinate management of feral goats; continue the Kangaroo Partnership Project; and increase native vegetation and biodiversity across the region.
The Landscape Priorities fund, established under the Landscape South Australia Act 2019 enables investment in large, landscape scale projects addressing regional and cross regional priorities.