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MURRAY-DARLING BASIN COMMISSION – MARCH 2004 SUBSCRIBER E-LETTER No 28
Welcome to the Murray-Darling Basin monthly e-letter with reports of happenings across the Basin.
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In this issue:
MDBC CE LOOKS BACK OVER DECADES OF NR MANAGEMENT
Natural resources management is now driven by the need to understand how the total landscape works and to take that into account when working on any particular part of it.
That’s the central message in a wide-ranging interview by MDBC Chief Executive Mr Don Blackmore in the latest issue of the Australian Landcare magazine.
Mr Blackmore retires later this month (March) after 14 years at the helm of the Basin’s peak natural resource management agency. In the interview with Daniel Connell, Mr Blackmore looks at the major water issues over that time and casts an eye to future challenges.
“We have moved away from treating things in isolation, whether they be rivers, floodplains, communities or the various natural resources issues that we are concerned about at different times,” he said.
“The three States in the southern part of the Basin now have effective integrated catchment management arrangements in place and Queensland is not far behind.”
Mr Blackmore says the shift in thinking really began after the drought of the late 1960s when salinity first became a serious issue.
“It coincided with the controversy caused by South Australia wanting to build a large shallow dam just upstream of Renmark on the Chowilla floodplain.
“Not only did that dam raise complex salinity issues of its own, it also seriously brought into question the way the States worked together or didn’t work together to run the Basin.
“Chowilla was also the beginning of the end for the philosophy that every problem could be conquered with a good engineering solution.
“After that we gradually realised that we needed a better decision-making process, a clear role for the community and an integrated approach to natural resources management.
“It took nearly twenty years of debate but we eventually created today’s institutional structure with the Ministerial Council, the Community Advisory Council and the Commission,” Mr Blackmore said.
Mr Blackmore says that the main aim of recent major decisions affecting the future of the Basin and the allocation of $500 million was to upgrade irrigated agriculture and protect six icon sites including the main river channel.
“It’s an important signal to the community that we want healthy communities and a healthy river. That has been the aim since day one.
“It will give a big boost to solving the problems of our over-allocated systems. The premiers and the Prime Minister have provided positive leadership on this issue.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council is now developing advice on the most effective ways of investing these resources to improve productivity and provide water for the environment,” Mr Blackmore said.
Read the full transcript of the interview at www.mdbc.gov.au/whatson/Don_Blackmore_interview.htm
THE BASIN SALINITY THREAT – THE GOOD AND THE BAD NEWS
About 3.4 million hectares of land could be at risk of dryland salinity by 2050, according to the MDBC in a feature article published in the latest Irrigation Industry Australia journal.
However, the article goes on to say that the news is not all bad. It stresses that important, large-scale inroads have been made into halting the spread and actually lowering the level of salinity in many areas.
This has been the result of salt mitigation efforts of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and a number of other agencies together with the benefits gained through the efforts of farmers and irrigation authorities under the various Land and Water Management Plans.
“The great improvements have been a direct result of has been have therefore been directly significant investment by a number of governments since at least 1980 in salt management measures such as dilution flows, salt interception schemes, State salinity action plans and Land and Water Management Plans,” the article says.
Paramount among these efforts was the Murray-Darling Basin’s Salinity and Drainage Strategy which operated from 1988 to 2001 (replaced in 2001 by a new, equally effective 15-year strategy – the Basin Salinity Management Strategy).
The new Strategy builds on the successes of the Salinity and Drainage Strategy and guides communities and governments in working together to control salinity and protect key natural resource values within their catchments. It establishes targets for the river salinity of each tributary valley and the Murray-Darling system itself.
Ironically, the severe drought over the past two years has actually helped to lower salt levels in some parts of the River Murray. Because of the drought, were lower than the long term average as a result of several factors including the source of the water, South Australia receiving full entitlement flow and the reduction in saline inflows due to the drought.most of the flows along the River Murray in the past two years have come from Hume and Dartmouth Reservoirs.
Read the full text of the article at www.mdbc.gov.au/naturalresources/salinity/IAA_salinity_article.htm
TRASHED OR TREASURE? FINDING ALTERNATIVES IN SALTY WETLANDS
If we can’t restore original conditions in rivers, streams and wetlands, do we just give up - or are there acceptable alternative states that can still support our wildlife?
Writing in the latest issue of Landcare Australia magazine, journalist Louise Ralph writes thatthickets of swamp she oak, paperbarks and flooded gums, with rushes, sedges and woody shrubs at their feet, once graced the fresh and seasonal wetlands of southwestern Australia.
But human activity has resulted in changes in the water system and an increase in salinity. Increases in water depth and the loss of natural wetting and drying cycles have changed wetland plant communities.
Submerged plants are replacing trees and emergent vegetation. Birds and animals that rely on emergent plants are struggling to live with these changed conditions. Most move on or die out.
It doesn’t stop there. Researchers say further increases in salinity will result in the loss of submerged plant species too. Without plant life, thick carpets (called benthic microbial mats) cover the lake floor and there is a further loss of biodiversity.
The before and after shots are grim, but there is hope. Valuing our wetland areas and protecting them from further salt damage is vital, says Dr Jenny Davis, researcher at Murdoch University in Western Australia.
As part of the National River Contaminants Program, jointly funded by Land & Water Australia and the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Dr Jenny Davis and her team are investigating viable alternative states between degraded and healthy wetlands.
The idea of alternative or multiple stable states has been used to explain vegetation change in systems from coral reefs to inland waterways. It has also been successful in predicting the response of wetlands to changes in nutrient status, such as increases in phosphorus from fertilisers and sewage treatment plants.
Researchers are now applying the theory to salinity problems in the rivers and wetlands of southwestern Australia. If successful, their work could help land managers predict how a wetland area will respond to changes in salinity, particularly salinity resulting from human activities (secondary salinity).
IRRIGATORS MEASURE UP AGAINST FIRST ANNUAL REPORT ON WATER USE
Early next month South Australian irrigators will know how they measure up when they receive the results of the first Annual Report on Water Use.
Since 2003, irrigation licence holders have been required to send in an annual report on water use to the SA Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation as part of the Water Allocation Plan for the River Murray Prescribed Watercourse.
The results are now being analysed by the Department in conjunction with the SA River Murray Catchment Water Management Board.
Information in the report will include: a summary of individual annual report information; comparisons of individual information against district averages; aggregated results for the River Murray Prescribed Watercourse; comparison of water allocation against water use; and soil moisture monitoring information
“The information will form the basis for allocating activities to improve water use efficiency on farms,” says Dan Meldrum, the Board’s senior project officer for salinity and water use.
“As a result, the installation of testwells, access to soil survey subsidies and soil water monitoring trials will be better directed to ensure that the maximum water savings gains are achieved over the coming years.
“We would really like to thank the local action planning groups and irrigators for their efforts and cooperation in this process,” Dan said.
Before the next round begins in August, irrigators will have an opportunity to update their crop information stored in the district database.
For more information or to register your interest in providing feedback on the first annual reporting process, please contact Dan Meldrum on (08) 8532 5732.
SPECIAL FOREVER PROGRAM TO GET DIGITAL BOOST
The MDBC’s premier school program, Special Forever, is to get a major boost through a collaboration with digital education experts at The Le@rning Federation.
Special Forever, which is managed for the MDBC by the Primary English Teaching Association (PETA), supports teachers in providing students with opportunities to learn about the environmental issues of their local communities.
It also helps teach effective written and visual communication skills and a selection of the texts created each year are published in an anthology of writing and artwork.
The Le@rning Federation (TLF) helps create online curriculum content and infrastructure to help teachers and students to widen and enhance their learning experiences.
TLF is an initiative of the governments of Australia, the States and Territories and the government of New Zealand. It is managed by Curriculum Corporation and education.au ltd - companies owned by all Ministers at a Commonwealth, State and Territory level.
Some of the aims of the new collaboration between The Le@rning Federation, PETA and Special Forever are:
- to extend access to The Le@rning Federation’s digital content for schools in the Murray Darling Basin (Queensland, NSW, ACT, Victoria and South Australia);
- to encourage and support teachers participating in the Special Forever project to integrate new information and communication technologies into their teaching; and
- to investigate whether the TLF learning objects promote new ways of representing, shaping and communicating knowledge for students and teachers?
MDBC CE TO GIVE WORLD PERSPECTIVE AT “POWER OF WATER” CONFERENCE
Murray-Darling Basin Commission CE, Mr Don Blackmore, will give a world perspective on Australia’s role in water management when he addresses the 21st Commonwealth Agricultural “The Power of Water” Conference in Albury in March.
Mr Blackmore is also Deputy Chair of the Cooperative Research Centre for Plant-Based Solutions to Dryland Salinity, a past Deputy Chair of the Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation and a Commissioner on the World Commission on Dams.
Organised by the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (RASC), the three-day Conference will be held in Albury from 24 to 26 March.
It will include speakers and participants from around Australia and the Commonwealth to discuss the topic “The Power of Water”.
Chairman of the RASC, Lord Sam Vestey, said that the conference had all the makings of a milestone event and was set to lift the level of discussion of water to one of conservation and management.
“Increasingly, those concerned for the future are concerned for water,” Lord Vestey said. “The concern is not just global or Australian, but it is personal, affecting every one of us.”
Among the invited participants for the Conference are Mrs Graca Machel, Chair of the Foundation for Community Development in Africa and wife of Nelson Mandela, the Prime Minister, The Hon John Howard, the Chairman of the Crawford Foundation and Director of the Australian Agricultural Company Ltd Mr Tim Fischer.
Other key participants include Murray-Darling Basin Commission Community Advisory Committee Chairman Ms Leith Boully, Pratt Water Group principal consultant Dr Bill Hurditch and President of the National Farmers’ Federation of Australia, Mr Peter Corish.
A feature of the conference will be a youth forum chaired by Member of the UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Science and Technology, Mr James Moody. The panel will consist of “young minds” representing Commonwealth Countries.
For general conference information, contact Peter Lloyd, Conference Manager, (Agritours Australia) , on (02) 6772 9066 or 0428 408 494 plloyd@anf.com.au or visit the website www.rasnsw.com.au/agconference.htm
‘ KILLING US SOFTLY’– ARE WEEDS MORE SERIOUS THAN SALINITY?
A seminar to be held in Canberra on 11 March will look at the national destructive impact of weeds on Australia’s landscape, agriculture and economy.
The organisers - the ACT and Southern NSW Branch of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology - say that in 2001-02 weeds cost the Australian economy between $3.4 million and $4.4 million.
The organisers say that of the more than 28,000 plant species introduced into Australia, over 2,500 have become naturalised.
Of those species which have ‘gone bush’, 65% have come from urban gardens and parks. The direct cost of weed control to our crop, livestock and horticultural industries is $1.4-$1.6 million per annum.
Lost production has now been estimated to inflict a cost of over $2 million a year to those industries.
However, the known direct cost of weeds in the environment as borne by National Parks, public authorities and on indigenous lands adds another $112 m a year to these estimates.
“It can be said that the problem of weeds certainly exceeds that of salinity in immediate cost terms and is comparable with the cost of land degradation to Australia.
Yet, weeds are just a faint blip on the "radar screen".
Speakers will include:
Dr Richard Groves, a scientist at the Division of Plant Industry, CSIRO, Canberra and a specialist in biological control of skeleton weed, thistle, bitu bush and bridle creeper.
Dr. Deidre Lemerle is a weed scientist with NSW Agriculture at Wagga Wagga; and
Dr Rachael McFadyen, CEO of the Weeds CRC.
The seminar will be introduced and chaired by the Hon John Kerin, Minister for Primary Industry from 1983 to 1991.
It will be held at the Coombs Building, Australian National University, Canberra on 11 March from 5.30-7 p.m.
For more information visit the website www.aiast.com.au/calendar.php?PHPSESSID=f939c5a0786c84c989c5404f5808738d
NATURAL RESOURCES ATLAS AND DATA LIBRARY UNDER REVIEW
Users are being asked whether the Australian Natural Resources Atlas and Data Library meets their needs.
The National Land and Water Resources Audit is reviewing the online system which provides ready access to national and regional data and information.
The Audit, which will guide the future developments and improvements to the system, is particularly interested in the views of people involved in Natural Resources Management.
The review involves telephone and personal meetings with selected target audiences, focus user groups and an on-line questionnaire.
The survey is available via a link on the Audit's web site at www.nlwra.gov.au
The results of the survey will be available by April.
For more information contact Peter Wilson at the Audit on 02 6257 3024, email peter.wilson@nlwra.gov.au
RABBITS AND THE BATTLE AGAINST SALINITY
What do rabbits have to do with salinity? Quite a lot, according to a feature in the latest issue of NESSI, the North East Salinity Strategy Implementation newsletter published in Victoria.
It seems rabbits can be a major headache in efforts to contain and cut down salinity in agricultural areas.
For example, across catchments, land holders are busy planting trees and shrubs for a range of benefits including to cut the amount of water leaching to the water table and ultimately causing salinity.
But recently planted seedlings are like “an all you can eat” buffet to rabbits and they destroy weeks of hard work establishing a tree plantation.
“Rabbits not only target seedlings planted by you but also the seedlings that grow naturally. So rabbits can impact on regeneration, so there are fewer trees to replace the old ones. This further reduces the perennial vegetation in the landscape,” the feature says.
“Rabbits grazing on perennial pastures during summer can weaken or even kill the plants. Weeds and annual grasses can then dominate. These annual grass species don’t use as much water and therefore are not as effective at reducing the risk of salinity.”
These are just some of the reasons to why it is important to control rabbits, but especially important to do so before undertaking a new tree planting project.
The feature provides ideas on where to start and stark statistics on the improvement coming from rabbit control.
For a copy of the newsletter go to www.necma.vic.gov.au/news.html#Newsletters
MANAGING IRRIGATION IN A CATCHMENT CONTEXT
The 2nd Asian Regional Conference to be held at Echuca/Moama on the River Murray I4-17 March will examine "Irrigation in a Total Catchment Context, Sharing the River".
Organisers say more than 400 participants and speakers from around Australia and overseas will share experiences in managing irrigation and drainage from a total catchment perspective.
It will also give them the opportunity to experience first hand local Australian programs and projects.
Organised by the Australian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, the conference will discuss and debate the issues and successes achieved in managing from a total catchment perspective.
Murray-Darling Basin Commission CE Mr Don Blackmore will be a keynote speaker.
Other speakers include Angus Duncan, President and CEO of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation in Portland, Oregon; Dr. Taniyama, a former Executive Director of Japan’s Water Resources Development Public Corporation and a Deputy Director General, of Agricultural Structural Improvement.
Just a few of the topics to be explored at the conference include:
- taking an overview of catchment management and where it is going;
- legal frameworks for catchment management within national and international situations; and
- understanding the influence of irrigation systems on water sharing issues in a catchment context.
Chairman of the conference organising committee Stephen Mills said the event would give delegates the opportunity of learning from Australia’s considerable experience.
“Australia, being the driest continent on earth, is at the forefront of developing programs and technologies for improving water system delivery efficiencies and on-farm water use efficiency.
“This is being achieved as part of a total catchment management approach ensuring that environmental issues such as salinity, river health and water quality are managed in sustainable way.
He said the conference was being held near the River Murray in the middle of the intense irrigation areas of northern Victoria and southern New South Wales. The timing was chosen to coincide with late summer weather and the irrigation season for rice, dairying and horticulture.
For more information contact services@profconferences.com or visit the website at www.icid2004.com
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