Salisbury West Landcare Group's Excursion to Nhill, October, 09

The group arrived at Dimboola for lunch after a wet trip through Minyip and the endless plains of a variety of well growing crops.
The Starricks’ farm at Marango was our stop for the afternoon; they run Boer goats on the river flats. The river was running for the first time in five years and the district’s spirits were high.
The Starricks are part of a ‘salt busters’ group who are planting salt bush in salt pans denied natural drainage due to farm dam and road construction. The weather was too wet for a farm tour; their tree planting trailer was inspected and much was learned from this inspiring couple.
At the river we saw Rusty Hood Orchids and other wildflowers. Tea was had at the Union Hotel with Trevor Barker and the Starricks.
Wednesday saw us on the Jeparit Road to inspect a farm which was being replanted with local species, and to hear a member of the Landcare group talk about their work around Nhill.
Next, a short stop at Jeparit to see Lake Hindmarsh; the river had just reached the southern end.
At Rainbow for lunch then back to Lake Hindmarsh to see the overflow and the wildflowers there.
West to Hermans Hill for a 3km hike. The hill is all sand which supports a large variety of wildflowers, shrubs and mallee. The view from the top was extensive.
West again to a property north of Yanac; here the owner had planted the sand dunes with local native vegetation, some by direct seeding or with a team of tree planters. The flat ground between the dunes had good grass cover.
We met Brett Wheatley near Boyeo, who spoke to us about the Nhill Landcare Group and their annual tree planting project. Each year 200 people, mainly from Melbourne, converge at the Little Desert Lodge where they are accommodated, fed and sent out in teams to revegetate the district,working on the 141 Biolink project, to link the Big and Little Deserts. Other groups are linking on to the Murray River and on to Broken Hill. The roadsides, some five chains wide, are being revegetated as well as some private land.
Brett, the Mayor and the Nhill Landcare President joined us for tea at the lodge, and after speeches joined us for a spotlighting tour to see owls, bandicoots, betongs, possums, gliders and stone curlews.
Thursday morning we had a tour and talk about the mallee fowl breeding programme.
After thanking Trevor for a great tour we returned to Dimboola to meet with a “greenie’, Brian Head, who though not being a member of Landcare, has a great love of the environment. He has set aside 40 acres for natural regeneration. The block had been a nine-hole golf course and a place for paddock driving before he set it aside in 1968. The block has large old trees, shrubs and a diverse ground cover. hundreds of greencomb spider orchids were seen as well as onion orchids, lilies, dianellas and peas.
A late lunch at Horsham and back home via St. Arnaud passing huge crops of wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas and lentils.

Thank you Jean and Trevor for organising a great trip, and Bruce for safe driving.

Article by Marj May, October 09 - Salisbury West Landcare Group

Some members of the NUFG take a break from planting

A hard session of planting done, the planters take a break. See the previous article by Mal Brown on aspects of the Northern United Forestry Group.

Photograph by Mal Brown

The Northern United Forestry Group

Introduction
Northern United Forestry Group (NUFG) is a community-based collective of 45 farming families committed to establishing permanent systems that bring about sustainable land use change. The group's focus is to establish low-rainfall (<450 mm) farm forestry as a commercially viable enterprise providing forest products, environmental services and community benefits.

In 2004 NUFG received the National Landcare Research Award for its research into suitable native trees for farm forestry on Victoria's northern plains. The Kamarooka Landcare Project involves reclaiming 50 hectares of salt affected land using a mix of saltbush, native grasses and farm forestry species. Changes in the soil/water/vegetation balance, and the productivity and biodiversity benefits, are being measured through a 'community monitoring program'.

Results to date challenge the conventional understanding of how both remnants and new plantings interact with the saline environment in which they live. Grassroots research at Kamarooka is capturing the unprecedented change in both water balance and groundwater behaviour. As the watertable drops it provides a window of opportunity to establish new management regimes on land previously subject to salinity. The project is a working example of an effective partnership between science and the community.

About NUFG
NUFG was founded in 1998. The group has a strategic plan and an investment strategy to help increase membership and achieve 2,500 hectares of farm forestry. NUFG members focus on growing trees and building the group’s collective knowledge. Members own and manage large areas of cleared agricultural land and have the silvicultural expertise needed to propagate, establish, manage and harvest trees. They are also skilled in milling logs on-farm, adding value to products and sourcing markets for end products. A strong farmer base ensures that plantations are managed as part of the farming system. Farming enterprises include cropping, fodder production, prime lambs, wool, dairying and beef cattle. Skilling group members in all aspects of farm forestry is an important activity. More than half the group has completed the University of Melbourne's Master Tree Growers (MTG) course.

History of the Kamarooka Project
Salinity was first observed at Kamarooka in the 1950s. The Kamarooka project started in 2004 with the group planting a mix of saltbush, native grasses and farm forestry species to reclaim saline land. The Hay family, also NUFG members, support the project making available the land and actively participating in project management. The project has received funding from the Australian Government through the Natural Resources Innovation Program (2004/05) and the National Landcare Program (2005/06). The project also receives in-kind support from NUFG members, scientists and local natural resource management (NRM) agency staff.

During 2004 NUFG members consulted with the scientific community, including hosting a site visit and 'think tank' with Dr Ed Barrett-Lennard (Department of Agriculture, WA) Dr Richard George (Department of Agriculture, WA) and Dr Nico Marcar (CSIRO Division of Forestry). Dr Clive Malcolm (WA) also advised on species selection for the site.

In 2004 the group established 11,000 trees, 10,000 saltbush plugs, six hectares of direct-seeded saltbush and native grasses and five kilometres of direct-seeded trees. Another 8,000 trees were planted in 2005.

In 2006 grazing trials commenced to research the productivity benefits of reclaiming marginal land – again the Hay family contributes large numbers of lambs for the trials.

Monitoring soil/water/vegetation interactions at Kamarooka
Phil Dyson, NUFG member and hydrogeologist, manages a comprehensive groundwater-monitoring program as part of the project. Phil brings important history to the project having been involved in monitoring at Kamarooka since the early 1980s when he worked for the Soil Conservation Authority.

Monitoring has taught us about the groundwater system and the way that it functions to cause salinity. Recent monitoring has clearly shown the impact of more than twelve years of altered rainfall regimes on the salinity-groundwater interactions in the Kamarooka catchment.
In 2004 ten groundwater observation bores were installed on site to evaluate the on-going impact of the growing vegetation. Another four bores were installed in 2006.

To better understand the interactions between the remnant vegetation and the watertable a number of high definition water level loggers and a barometric pressure logger were installed. The loggers permit short interval watertable measurements (ten minutes) over extended time periods (three months).

The latest monitoring results can be found at www.nufg.org.au

LPLN information day for the Norman Wettenhall Foundation

Ten o’clock in the morning of the 24th of November at Northern United Forestry Group’s (NUFG) Kamarooka Project site on the Hay family farm saw the beginning of an information day when representatives from the Norman Wettenhall Foundation (NWF) met with the executive committee of the Loddon Plains Landcare Network. The committee’s objectives for the information day were to:
· Showcase Landcare in the Loddon region to the NWF
· Demonstrate a cohesive approach to community participation in landscape-scale change, habitat protection and enhancement, and sustainable agricultural production across the network's area
· Provide the NWF with a sample of the diversity of people and projects that make up the network
· Seek a partnership with NWF and ultimately funding to develop a strategic plan for the network and the area that we cover.

The group toured the site with Ian Rankin, NUFG President, and hydrogeologist Phil Dyson. The 50-hectare site had been a barren piece of land besieged by salinity problems since the 1950s. But the revegetation efforts of the NUFG have transformed it into a green oasis. Important and informative scientific research into salinity management, the watertable response to different revegetation treatments and the physiological responses of trees to stress is ongoing at the site.

After leaving Kamarooka the group travelled to view a North Central Landcare Group project ‘The Greening of the Myers Creek’, part of which is in progress on Colin Koch’s farm at Campbell’s Forest. Colin described how he had fenced off the length of creek on his property to prevent grazing and then proceeded to revegetate the area. Penny Wall, who had coordinated this project, took the opportunity to inform the visitors of her efforts in setting up a junior landcare group with students from the East Loddon P-12 College.

Lunch was appreciated and enjoyed on the banks of the Loddon River at Bill Twigg's Elmswood property. Bill, a passionate land carer talked of his love of trees and the beauty of the river but added that the peaceful scene that we were enjoying was in fact the result of planning and revegetation that had been carried out in previous years and was still ongoing. He also commented on the favourable shade effects that this work had had on his lamb breeding programme.

Colleen Condcliffe, of Salisbury West Landcare Group, agreeing wholeheartedly with Bill’s strategy, described the efforts of her group in progressing their community biodiversity action plan for their greening of part of the Loddon River.

Lunch finished, the group proceeded first to view a site along the Wychitella road, north of Wedderburn, that had been revegetated by the Wedderburn Conservation Management Network (WCMN). Peter Morison of DSE, one of the partner groups of the WCMN, related how the work had been done to enhance the habitat of various woodland bird species including the nationally endangered malleefowl.

As time was passing rather quickly and deadlines had to be met the group moved to view the Australian Bush Heritage site at Mount Kerang. Bush Heritage is also a WCMN partner group. Much work has been done at this property to control pest plants and animals, monitor grazing pressure by studying exclusion plots, and the discovery of a rare species of orchid and the revegetation of the property. The views from Mount Kerang were spectacular.
An informative day enjoyed by all.

Article by Michael Moore and Mal Brown, photographs by Mal Brown