I am including this for your information
and for me to consolidate a submission I want to make to the South Burnett
Regional Council to direct some of their $1.6 million ‘green’ funding towards various
environmental projects … and to focus attention at a community level on our
most critically endangered ecologies. I didn’t win the comp, but just being
chosen as one of 10 finalists was wonderful - I think it struck a chord with
Floriade, after all it is time we
started fixing up some of the massive damage we’ve done to biodiversity in this
country. It has given me a real boost and renewed confidence.
[I’m working towards devising a
whole-system framework for the ‘Identification, protection, buffering and
augmentation of remnants of threatened eco-communities’ – I think it would be
quite possible to use a computer program to identify such areas from satellite
imagery.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: Congratulations Finalists -
Aspiring Inventors Competition
I’m over the moon, can hardly contain
my excitement! Just to get this far is simply amazing - I am mostly happy
though that the dire situation of our threatened ecology will at least be
highlighted. I certainly will be available for any media involvement over the
phone (04 277 10523), but I’m not able to go to Floriade I’m afraid – my
financial situation precludes!
A suggestion for the 10 word title: A system of
rainforest regeneration utilising trenches and seed beds. Thank you Floriade for giving me the
opportunity to bring awareness to endangered biodiversity protection,
conservation and restoration ...........maureen
[Maureen Brannan 905 Wilsons Road
CLOYNA Q 4605]
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 5:53 PM
Subject: Congratulations Finalists - Aspiring
Inventors Competition
Congratulations!
You have been selected as one of 10
finalists in the Aspiring Inventors Competition.
The quality of entries were
exceptionally high and you should be extremely proud of this achievement.
Your entries will be exhibited on our
screens in the Inspiration Hub at Floriade during INVENTION WEEK, Monday
September 30 – Sunday October 6 in Canberra.
The winner will be announced on Sunday
6 October, at the Inspiration Hub, by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki at 3.00 – 3.30pm.
We will hand out prizes to the winners
and plaques for our finalists. Could you please let me know if you intend to
come to Floriade for the presentation. If you are not able to make the ceremony
in Canberra on Sunday 6 October, we will post your plaque/prize to you.
We intend to send out a press release
next week to media with the names of the 10 finalists and a descriptive title
of your invention.
Please let us know if you are available
for further media involvement and send through your contact details.
What you need to do now:
1. Have a celebratory beverage. J
2. Can you please respond to this email
within 24 hours to confirm you have received this email.
3. Can you please forward a short
descriptive title for your invention which will be used in media (10 words
maximum).
4. Can you please send through your mobile
phone or home phone should we need to contact you at short notice or to arrange
media interviews.
5. Please confirm whether you will be
attending the presentation ceremony at Floriade on Sunday 6 October or not.
Again, congratulations and a sincere
thank you for entering the Aspiring Inventors Competition.
Kind regards, Adelina
Adelina La Vita | Marketing & Communications
Manager, Events ACT
Phone 02 6205 0659 | Fax 02 6205 0629 | Mobile 0402 896 843
Events ACT | Venue & Event Services |Economic Development Directorate | ACT Government
--------------------------------------------------
My submission 2.9.13:
Describe Your Invention (50 to 100 words for each response)
My invention is a specific landscaping technique, Concentric Ring Trenching
augmented by Mandala Islands, designed to expeditiously re-generate dense
groves of dry-vine rainforest in cleared or degraded land. After discovering
that the surface roots of a rainforest giant spread 50 meters from the tree,
and that wherever a trench was dug within that zone multiple root suckers
emerged, I designed a pattern of trench digging in radial lines and
concentric rings around the tree. Mandala Islands are round beds designed
for locally-sourced native seed planting that are established amongst the
trenches and can be utilised where no old-growth exists.
What is the problem and how will your invention solve it?
We have a biodiversity crisis in this shire where less than 2% of dry-vine
rainforest remains of pre-settlement cover, the loss of which would mean the
local extinction of hundreds of species. I am hoping that this simple method
of regeneration, requiring only a mattock to establish, can be widely
disseminated via councils & newspapers and awareness brought to bear on this
issue so remnants on private property can be identified, protected and
sourced for seed – at present many often fall under the ‘white’ zone on the
PMAV maps and can be cleared without a permit or subject to regular
'control' burning.
What is different about it compared to what already exists?
I don’t think anything like this method exists already - I am told by a
local nursery man who landscapes botanical gardens that he has not seen it
before and I can find nothing like it on the internet. Rainforest
regeneration techniques are usually adapted to small canopy gaps and natural
‘succession’, but not for areas where no remnant rainforest exists at all. I
have researched an Amazon tribe’s (Kyapo) method of rainforest regeneration
over a vast distance of cleared land which is similar to the mandala
islands, but they do not use trench regeneration.
Who is the inventor and what is your background, experience, motivation,
inspiration?
I am the inventor – my background is in environmental activism since the
early 1970’s. I gained most of my practical experience in revegetation
undertaking a big project on the Atherton Tablelands and another on my
privately owned Nature Reserve in SEQ. My motivation has been to raise
awareness of the plight of discrete ecological communities that have been
virtually erased over vast areas and my inspiration is the ‘Transition Town’
revolution that is sweeping across the world, where people are not waiting
‘for the cavalry to arrive’, but coming together in their neighbourhoods and
just getting on with the job!
Photos attached:
1. Root sucker
propagation by trenching - first discovery - the dozens of
trees that came up from my 30cm deep water pipe trench
2. Cloyna from the air - close study of such maps can identify bio-rich
remnants - some of these in Cloyna are brigalow patches, itself a critically
endangered ecosystem regionally and nationally with only 1% remaining, but
others are rainforest patches
3. I moved onto the land with my children (sole parent) in 1995 - they are
now both very thankful to have had the opportunity to grown up close to
Nature! I have an 'after' picture of this 'before' view taken in 2004 which
shows abundant regrowth - can't find it at the moment though.
4. The revegetation zone
trees that came up from my 30cm deep water pipe trench
2. Cloyna from the air - close study of such maps can identify bio-rich
remnants - some of these in Cloyna are brigalow patches, itself a critically
endangered ecosystem regionally and nationally with only 1% remaining, but
others are rainforest patches
3. I moved onto the land with my children (sole parent) in 1995 - they are
now both very thankful to have had the opportunity to grown up close to
Nature! I have an 'after' picture of this 'before' view taken in 2004 which
shows abundant regrowth - can't find it at the moment though.
4. The revegetation zone
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few details on the seed-bed component
of the revegetation model.
I’ll add a revised overall map of the
zone at a later stage. The ‘Trench regeneration’ is just one part of my
attempts to develop a ‘whole system’ Bush Regeneration program, other components
being:
>Enrichment Planting of selected natives amongst all stages of
regrowth (the first being mainly pioneer species); Research into all the potential bush plants
that grow in the region, their Indigenous uses, their horticultural
application, their suitability to supply restaurant/market/bush supplement
industries, etc.
[see excellent example of enrichment planting in the Kimberley, below]
I
realised when I first heard the term ‘enrichment planting’ that this is what I
had been doing on my Reserve all along – I used all naturally-occurring native regrowth, having eliminated
introduced exotic pasture grasses and weeds, and planted specifically chosen
bush species that are endemic to this area amongst it according to the
requirements of the individual species growth patterns. There were 100 plus
native species on site and I had compiled a list of 300 endemic native plants
of this bio-region from my reference books that could be trialled. The
bush-tucker industry is booming everywhere – in restaurants, retail, schools,
and in the bush supplements industry. This is the truly sustainable future for
Australia that I have spent the past decades working towards.
>Identifying the shire’s threatened
ecosystem remnants currently unprotected under the white zone of the state’s
PMAV maps … to then approach landowners with a ‘fact sheet’ on how they can
benefit from protecting and augmenting these remnants via numerous avenues such
as the various state and federal government
carbon sequestration and biodiversity schemes. Obviously these remnants and individual
endangered plants will be easier to protect and monitor on public land and
roadside reserves (Kingaroy SGAP has
recently discovered critically endangered plants on roadside reserves, which to
their credit, they have persuaded the council to actively protect instead of
perhaps unwittingly destroying in either ‘fuel
reduction’ burns or culvert excavations.)
Gubinge enrichment
In recent years a training initiative by Kimberley Training Institute (KTI) in developing the first cultivation models of an indigenous “super food” known in Broome as gubinge (Kakadu plum in the NT) has resulted in the formation of a collaborative partnership involving several prominent national organisations. The initiative aimed at maximizing involvement with and benefits for indigenous people in the emerging bush food industry includes the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, CSIRO, University of WA, Charles Darwin University and the Aboriginal Carbon Fund. The work at KTI’s Balu Buru Centre with indigenous students in developing a concept in agriculture termed “enrichment planting” is being acknowledged as appropriate in light of emerging market and environmental trends. Apart from presenting an opportunity for indigenous communities in producing a nutritious traditional food, KTI’s ‘enrichment planting” model has been proposed by the Aboriginal Carbon Fund as a new methodology under the Carbon Farming Initiative.
Click here to view the summary and recommendations from the ‘Savannah Enrichment’ methodology workshop at Kimberley Training Institute (KTI) Broome on April 23, 2013.
The workshop was sponsored and instigated by the Aboriginal Carbon Fund in collaboration with KTI.
In recent years a training initiative by Kimberley Training Institute (KTI) in developing the first cultivation models of an indigenous “super food” known in Broome as gubinge (Kakadu plum in the NT) has resulted in the formation of a collaborative partnership involving several prominent national organisations. The initiative aimed at maximizing involvement with and benefits for indigenous people in the emerging bush food industry includes the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, CSIRO, University of WA, Charles Darwin University and the Aboriginal Carbon Fund. The work at KTI’s Balu Buru Centre with indigenous students in developing a concept in agriculture termed “enrichment planting” is being acknowledged as appropriate in light of emerging market and environmental trends. Apart from presenting an opportunity for indigenous communities in producing a nutritious traditional food, KTI’s ‘enrichment planting” model has been proposed by the Aboriginal Carbon Fund as a new methodology under the Carbon Farming Initiative.
Click here to view the summary and recommendations from the ‘Savannah Enrichment’ methodology workshop at Kimberley Training Institute (KTI) Broome on April 23, 2013.
The workshop was sponsored and instigated by the Aboriginal Carbon Fund in collaboration with KTI.
For more information contact: Kim Courtenay
Lecturer in Horticulture Email:
Kim.Courtenay@kti.wa.edu.au
Ph 0891929129 / Mobile: 0428920837
Ph 0891929129 / Mobile: 0428920837
(Another separate submission is to
support a community food garden for Murgon with earth building workshops – a
cob oven as a first project but I have ABA standard plans for a course-adobe
dwelling - on the same lines as CERES and St. Kilda’s ‘Vegout’ in Melbourne.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
MANDALLA ISLANDS
Whilst
working on my reforesting, I devised another method of native plant
regeneration that I call “mandala bush gardens”
which I’ve trialled successfully, and which can be used to restore
diversity back to depleted land overgrown with grass and weeds. The only
tool needed is a mattock! My inspiration
came from the Kayapo people’s rainforest regeneration technique.*
I
initially select an area of grass that needs revegetating with native plants,
stand in one place and dig up the clods of grass, which I drop on the
spot. Then I work around this central
spot, knocking the soil from the clods and throwing them onto the pile, working
in an ever-increasing circle.
[note: the beds are not
necessarily round – the shape is determined by the local terrain and how rain
water flows, but the consistent element is the pile of composting grass in a
suitable spot] When the pile of grass and weeds is quite high, I then dig a
trench around the circumference, piling up the dirt towards the centre, forming
a raised bed – this prevents the “wild garden” from getting waterlogged and the
moat around them can channel the water into low-lying mini-dams for watering, if
the subsoil is suitable or using a plastic sheet if necessary. I then work the soil & add sand or
compost, or weed-free goat or horse manure from weed-free sources (but never
cow manure as it usually contains introduced grasses & weeds). I then add a
top final layer of naturally produced humus and composted debris collected from
drifts and natural depressions in the bush as many natives need the specific
elements in this mix vital to produce chemical triggers for sprouting – all
this will be fine-tuned as the project progresses. I then plant native seeds
according to their specific requirements.
Large seeds are planted deeply, many centrally just under the heap, and
tiny seeds on the surface etc. I try to
place vines around the inner heap, which composts down very quickly and
provides an area for vines to scramble over.
Fallen branches can be thrown over the pile to help the scramblers.
Native vines and scramblers found on my land include the scrambling caper, climbing
saltbush, monkey rope & stiff jasmine.
-----------------------------------------------------
Excerpt from Islands of
Forest - from
"Wisdom of the Elders” by Peter Knudtson & David Suzuki
(Kayapo people are from the
remote Xingu River watershed of central Brazil)
Kayapo communities are adept at
altering the ecosystem around them in ways that are invisible to most Western
eyes. One of the most intriguing of these is the painstakingly slow but
nonetheless effective Kayapo technique of REFORESTING SAVANNAH.
A key Kayapo reforestation strategy is to renew clumps of trees in small patches of forest of variable size scattered across open savannah. These dynamic "islands of forest" adrift in surrounding savannah "seas" are known locally as apete. Most Western observers have assumed that apete arose through the familiar ecological process called succession - a natural, predictable, progressive sequence of stages in the composition and appearance of a grassland ecosystem. It was widely assumed that savannah gave birth to apete in much the same way that a freshly cleared patch of temperate forest is taken over, first by fast growing weeds, then by shrubs, and finally by mature trees - all without the slightest human intervention.
But in the Kayapo savannah, especially in the grassy areas that the Kayapo regularly frequent, areas of apete arise by human design. In fact, astonishingly enough, up to three-fourths of the little islands of forest - each different size, shape and stage of maturity - have been deliberately placed there by Kayapo hands.
The basic Kayapo reforestation strategy is as ingenious as it is simple.(As are most native ecosystem regeneration techniques - all that is needed is to closely observe how Nature revegetates and give Her a helping hand - m) They create miniature replicas of existing forest islands in the grasslands, complete with fertile soil and young plantings. They tend them for a time with the same care that they lavish on their vegetable gardens. They generally do this in August and September, the first months of the local wet season. After the plants in the artificial apete sites take root and begin to flourish, they are left unattended to grow and reproduce on their own, through the natural processes of ecological succession, into mature groves.
The traditional Kayapo recipe for regenerating forest islands in a tree-less expanse of savannah involves the following steps:
> First, they gather leaves and branches and pile them into a compost heap. After the rotting vegetation ha sufficiently decomposed, they smash it with sticks into a finer mulch;
A key Kayapo reforestation strategy is to renew clumps of trees in small patches of forest of variable size scattered across open savannah. These dynamic "islands of forest" adrift in surrounding savannah "seas" are known locally as apete. Most Western observers have assumed that apete arose through the familiar ecological process called succession - a natural, predictable, progressive sequence of stages in the composition and appearance of a grassland ecosystem. It was widely assumed that savannah gave birth to apete in much the same way that a freshly cleared patch of temperate forest is taken over, first by fast growing weeds, then by shrubs, and finally by mature trees - all without the slightest human intervention.
But in the Kayapo savannah, especially in the grassy areas that the Kayapo regularly frequent, areas of apete arise by human design. In fact, astonishingly enough, up to three-fourths of the little islands of forest - each different size, shape and stage of maturity - have been deliberately placed there by Kayapo hands.
The basic Kayapo reforestation strategy is as ingenious as it is simple.(As are most native ecosystem regeneration techniques - all that is needed is to closely observe how Nature revegetates and give Her a helping hand - m) They create miniature replicas of existing forest islands in the grasslands, complete with fertile soil and young plantings. They tend them for a time with the same care that they lavish on their vegetable gardens. They generally do this in August and September, the first months of the local wet season. After the plants in the artificial apete sites take root and begin to flourish, they are left unattended to grow and reproduce on their own, through the natural processes of ecological succession, into mature groves.
The traditional Kayapo recipe for regenerating forest islands in a tree-less expanse of savannah involves the following steps:
> First, they gather leaves and branches and pile them into a compost heap. After the rotting vegetation ha sufficiently decomposed, they smash it with sticks into a finer mulch;
> They carry the mulch to the savannah planting site - ordinarily, a dish-like depression in the soil that will trap rainfall. They sprinkle it with earthen debris from termite mounds and ant nests, as well as a dash of living termites and ants themselves. (The nest debris presumably fertilizes the soil. The Kyapo say that the insects, deliberately taken from mutually hostile colonies, are so intent on battling one another that the tender young shoots of the new plantings are left relatively unscathed.)*
> They pile the resulting mixture into a mound measuring one to two yards across and a foot or so deep. They place a variety of wild plants from the nearby rain forest onto this fertile soil.
> In the months ahead, members of a family will pass by the site en- route to their more distant garden fields. They will pause to care for the young flora of the forest islet, which is termed apete-nu at this immature stage. They continue to add plantings along the periphery of the islet to increase both it's size and it's botanical complexity.
In time, these apete-nu become apete. The frail, artificial islets of vegetation, stimulated by wild seed dispersal and other natural processes as well as human intervention, develop into true apete, consisting of tall, shade-lending trees. Within these ever-expanding stands of trees is a bounty of wild herbs and bushes planted by the Kayapo. These provide villagers with useful food, material, and medicinal products. The Kayapo harvest hundreds of kinds of fruits, roots, leaves & nuts; some 250 different kinds of wild fruits, and more than 650 different medicinal plants, from the tropical rain forest.
Over a period of years as the apete grow still larger - expanding by a few acres in a decade - they serve other needs as well. Mature forest islands provide precious habitat, conveniently close to the homes of Kayapo hunters for prized game birds and mammals. They have served as defensive cover for fierce Kayapo warriors. They harbour the secret medicinal gardens of powerful Kayapo shamans. And, on occasions, they provide a measure of privacy for young Kayapo lovers.
The Kayapo are rewarded in two principal ways for their exceedingly patient labours of savannah reforestation. They gain a strategically placed patchwork of self-sustaining woodland "gardens", stocked with scores of useful wild plants and animal species. And, in ways we can scarcely imagine, they receive the more intangible pleasure of seeing their beloved apete-dappled savannah lands endlessly rejuvenated and visually renewed - despite the demands of generations of Kayapo hunters and food gatherers.
----------o0o---------
TRUE FORESTRY
”Liquidating old growth forests is not forestry - it is simply spending our inheritance. Nor is planting a monoculture forestry - it is simply plantation management and that is all we are currently practicing. Restoration forestry is the only true forestry. We use the forest - remove products and nutrients - and then we restore it's vitality, it's sustainability, so that we can remove more products in time, without impairing the forest's ability to function. Anything else is not forestry.”
Chris Master, Biologist and sustainable forestry consultant.
”Liquidating old growth forests is not forestry - it is simply spending our inheritance. Nor is planting a monoculture forestry - it is simply plantation management and that is all we are currently practicing. Restoration forestry is the only true forestry. We use the forest - remove products and nutrients - and then we restore it's vitality, it's sustainability, so that we can remove more products in time, without impairing the forest's ability to function. Anything else is not forestry.”
Chris Master, Biologist and sustainable forestry consultant.
(Similar to my comment on true forestry from 1998..."It is very easy to grow one plant species in rows – it is very, very difficult to put back a biodiverse, fully functioning and self-perpetuating ecological system." and "The concept that native forests can be 'harvested' has been flawed from the start - you do not 'harvest' old-growth forests - you harvest a crop you have grown yourself or you harvest Nature's bounty that she has gives freely. Nature placed everything in the ecological systems there for a purpose and no-one has the right to destroy them or even degrade them.”)
“Familiarity
with basic ecology will permanently change your world view. You will never
again regard plants, micro-organisms, and animals (including people) as
isolated entities. Instead you will see them, more accurately, as parts of a
vast complex of natural machinery - as, in the dictionary definition,'related elements
in a system that operates in a definable manner'. Time, however, is growing
short. Nature's machinery is being demolished at an accelerating rate, before
humanity has even determined exactly how it works. Much of the damage is
irreversible.“
Paul Ehrlich, Ecologist
Paul Ehrlich, Ecologist
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I
try and monitor innovative land restoration schemes to learn from – I’ve
discovered three recently:
1. And then the waters came to
Banrock Station, South Australia by: Helen
McKenzie From: The Australian
October 05, 2013 12:00AM
The higher river water level allows the Banrock
Station wetlands to be flooded by gravity.
CHRISTOPHE Tourenq is talking about a rare Arabian
mountain leopard and a colony of endangered "unny biz". Politely I
ask him to repeat what he's just said and then I get it - honey bees. Tourenq, the
manager of Banrock Station wetlands at Kingston on Murray, three hours' drive
northeast of Adelaide, is French and his delightful accent has me hanging on
every word. After a decade working in the Middle East, Tourenq is enjoying a
new, almost God-like challenge. He oversees the creation of wet and dry seasons
for 700ha of land degraded by a century or more of sheep grazing. The low-lying
land is flanked on one side by the Murray River, with its rugged limestone
cliffs, and the orderly Banrock Station vineyards on the adjacent rolling
hills.The job at hand is to restore the habitat for 200 animal and plant
species, including eight kinds of frogs and the threatened Regent Parrot. Part
of the process is to re-establish the indigenous river red gum and black box
eucalypts. More than 6600 seedlings have been planted in an attempt to mimic
the Riverland vegetation prior to 1925 when the Murray was tamed by locks and
lagoons to allow paddlesteamer transport between Adelaide and Echuca. Today,
Tourenq pulls out a plug and floods the land - well, actually he turns a large
tap that opens floodgates. The higher river water level allows the wetland to
be flooded by gravity, no pump required./.......
and 2. The Federal
Government has just listed monsoon vine thickets, located on the coastal sand
dunes of Dampier Peninsula, an endangered ecological community.
The Commonwealth has officially recognised west Kimberley monsoon vine
thickets as “Nationally Endangered”.Vine thickets are remnants of an ancient
rain forest which remain in low-lying areas between some dunes on the Dampier
Peninsula.They are threatened by weeds, feral animals, inappropriate burning
and four-wheel driving.Pockets of these are scattered along Dampier Peninsula’s west and east
coast, behind the sand dunes. They are culturally significant and are home and
refuges for unique communities of plants and animals. 25% of Dampier Peninsula
plant species are found within vine thickets, yet they only cover less than one
tenth of 1% of the land area. The first comprehensive study of Dampier Peninsula
monsoon vine thickets is now available. Broome Botanical Society has found that
the many scattered patches are interconnected, with the loss of a single patch
likely to affect all the other patches. They have recommended that all patches
be conserved and identified 6 high priority areas including Quandong to James
Price Point.
-----------------------------------------------------
Excerpt from
National Indigenous Times article: Fire Threat to Monsoon Vine Thickets:
Rangers and Environs Kimberley present to Science Conferences
“Aboriginal people,
including Bardi Jawi, are known traditionally to have kept fire away from MVT’s
to protect important fruit, water and cultural resources, but now fire on the
Peninsula is mostly uncontrolled and increasing in frequency, seasonal
intensity and scale,” Bardi Jawi Ranger Chris Sampi said. Analysis revealed
significant annual fire damage and losses in canopy cover, with 74% of MVT
patches being burnt ever one to three years. Ground-truthing identified that
fire impact is likely to be underestimated, and that fire compromises
vegetation structure well into the patches. “These are frightening findings,
given that we know that MVT’s are slow growing and will retreat rapidly when
vegetation is burnt. This sustained damage has alarming consequences for the
ecological function and viability of the entire Dampier Peninsula MVT ecosystem
network,” Environs Kimberley Project Coordinator Louise Beames said. “This collaboration
between Indigenous rangers with strong traditional local knowledge and
practical skills, ecologists and partners has enabled us to identify the most
vulnerable MVT;s on Bardi Jawi and Nyul Nyul country, adjust management and
better protect MVTs significant eco-cultural values.”
(This augments my
research that Aborigines never burnt ANY rainforest or closed-canopy forests,
whether the dry-vine forest thickets of inland SE Qld, tropical, sub-tropical
or these monsoon vine thickets, and so we most certainly should never burn them
now! They used to burn the country surrounding such areas of dense
vegetation to protect the remnant from fires. No threatened ecosystem should
not be burnt unless the Aboriginal custodians of country deem it necessary and
appropriate, bearing in mind their fire-stick regimes were undertaken in savannah
land and open forests, and also at a time when no ecosystem was endangered,
which is a very different situation now as so many have been cleared up to 99%
of original 1788 cover)
------------------------------------------------------------
Fish numbers rising Rural Weekly 11th Oct 2013 5:00 AM
MURRAY RETURNS: This healthy Murray cod caught by Dalby angler Ashley
Nickolls is one of many returning to the Condamine River because of riparian
restoration activities undertaken by Condamine Alliance over the past six
years. Local anglers are thrilled at the notable increase in native fish
numbers in Myall Creek recently. Dalby fisherman Ashley Nickolls said he was
fishing every day and had caught and released a cod or golden perch each time. "It's fantastic
fishing at the moment, especially lure fishing. It hasn't been this good for a
long time," he said. "We've really noticed the
difference in native fish numbers since all the new plants, lunkers and snags
were installed along the creek to increase fish habitat. Now it's unusual not
to find a healthy cod, yellowbelly or perch on the end of your line." The
lunkers and snags were introduced to the creek as part of the Dewfish
Demonstration Reach project which has been recognised with three national
awards for excellence in river restoration. Fourteen thousand plants have also
been planted along the sections of the Reach with the help of local school
children, international volunteers, council and landholders. Led by natural resource management group
Condamine Alliance, the project is credited with increasing golden perch by
1000 per cent, bony bream by 200 per cent and dewfish by 300 per cent in parts
of Myall Creek, Oakey Creek and the Condamine River.
[I was blown away by the outstanding success of this ecological
restoration project! It proves to me just how resilient Nature is, and how by
simply ‘observing closely and giving her a helping hand’ can very quickly bring
back the bounteous biodiversity that was there before degradation, but not only
that – we are now in a position to be able to horticulturally increase that
concentration of species! Although Nature will always ‘adjust’ our efforts in
whatever way She wants!]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A CASE FOR MESSY FORESTS
While the Aborigines once used this firestick farming method to enhance
biodiversity, their methods no longer apply when most of the ecology has been
cleared and only isolated fragments remain. It is common practice in these
parts to regularly burn roadside reserves in winter in order to keep the “fuel
load” down - it is not 'fuel load', it is habitat and future humus. I have consistently challenged this mindset. What all my neighbours
and Murgon Shire Council have done when burning and clearing undergrowth and
dead trees on their land and on the roadside reserves is an ecological disaster
for many species that need a complex forest system because critical habitat for
them includes rotting logs on the forest floor, large old living and dead trees
with hollows, and dense thickets of old under-story trees. Also, by destroying
saplings and smaller shrubs, what will happen when the big trees left die?
There is nothing to replace them. Many old-growth trees in roadside reserves do
not have viable seeds, probably because the forest is not complex enough to
fertilise them.
A CASE FOR MESSY FORESTS
By
Associate Professor David Lindenmayer, Senior Research Fellow at the
Centre
for Resource & Environmental Studies at the Australian National University
in Canberra
While a cleansed and homogenised forest
might appeal to some humans, it can be an ecological disaster for many forest
species.
Native
forests are back in the news. After a relatively short period on the
‘back-bench’ in the late 1990s, forest issues have returned to the political
agenda. New forms of intensive forest
use mean that the management and conservation of Australia’s native forests are
at a critical turning point.
These new forms of forest use involve ‘cleaning up’
native forest by removing the so-called ‘waste wood’ left after logging, and
then either burning it completely to generate power (biomass burning), or
burning it partially to produce charcoal, which is then used in the smelting of
silicon (Kayapo used charcoal in fields) A 200,000-ton-a-year charcoal plant is
proposed for the Mogo area of southern New South Wales and wood-burning power
stations are on the drawing board in several states.
These proposals might initially seem like a good
idea – they will use forest waste for other useful purposes. However, some deeper thought about the
ecological functioning of native forests leads to some concerns about the
long-term impacts of biomass burning and charcoal-making plants.
The amount of wood needed to run these operations
requires a significant intensification of logging because the ‘waste’ often
consists of whole trees, and not just the residue from sawmilling. For example, the charcoal plant proposed for
southern New South Wales will increase the volume of timber harvested from
approximately 150,000 tons to around 350,000 tons per year. This means that over double the amount of
timber must be found within the same area of forest. Many of the trees and logs will now be
‘cleaned up’ to meet this demand.
While a cleansed and homogenised forest
might appeal to some humans, it can be an ecological disaster for many forest
species. This is because the
intensification of logging leads to the simplification of the forest (as nearly everywhere in the Cloyna
& Byee district!) Many species actually need complex (‘messy’)
forests because critical habitat for them includes rotting logs on the forest
floor, large old living and dead trees with hollows, and dense thickets of old
under-storey trees.
Research shows that these structures
are severely depleted, or even lost, through intensive logging practices. It follows that populations of the species
that depend on them will be compromised.
Intensive forestry practices create what are essentially plantation-like
conditions, which are poor-quality habitats for most of our native fauna and
flora.
It is notable that the rationale given for these
projects – cleaning up the forest – is the same as that used to instigate
export woodchipping operations such as those at Eden in southern NSW several
decades ago. The presence of a large pulpwood market in Eden has forced forest
managers to extract a greater volume of wood from each unit area. This has necessitated the adoption of
clear-felling in this region
An example of the consequences of this
intensification is reflected in the availability of hollows to fauna; an average of three hollow trees per hectare
occur on logged sites in the Eden region compared with 22 per hectare on unlogged
sites. This change will have corresponding
negative impacts on the large number of vertebrate species that depend on
hollows in trees for their survival.
It is also notable that ecological studies from
many parts of the world have demonstrated the negative impacts on biodiversity
that result from intensive harvesting methods that ‘clean-up” and therefore
simplify native forests. A classic
example comes from Sweden where anally retentive forest managers remove every
defective living tree, every dead tree and every rotting log. Scores of species that depend on these
features are now red-listed or endangered in many parts of Scandinavia. Just
across the border, the ‘messier’ Russians left critical habitat structures in
their logged forests and many of the endangered Scandinavian species are
actually quite common there. Swedish
forest ecologists now take their forest managers to Russia to show them what
features need to be put back into forests to make them suitable for many
elements of the biota.
Despite the experiences of Eden and overseas,
proposals to greatly intensify logging in Australian forests mean that the
lesson from history is that we don’t learn from history. However, the adverse impacts of charcoal
plants and biomass burning would be so profound that we must ensure that past
mistakes are not repeated.
From Nature
Australia, an Australian Museum publication, Autumn 200
Further reading:
Lindenmayer, D B & Franklin, J
F 2002
Conserving
forest biodiversity: a comprehensive
multiscaled approach, Island Press: Washington D
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I’m preparing another submission, this
one is to my local council to try and save the last fragmented remnants of dry
vine rainforest in this shire (2% left in the tiniest fragmented remnants – as
researched by local biologist and president of the Society for Growing
Australian Plants, Caroline Haskard who calls the situation “scary”) –
I’m trying to draw attention to the fact that there may be many pockets of
rainforest on land that is blanket white on the Queensland State Government’s
PMAV maps, so not even identified, let alone protected (it is quite legal to
clear any land that is white on the map without a permit). I’m beginning
with this article, and also appealing to Prince Charles himself for support, as
he is currently fighting to save the last 3% remaining of Britain’s bio-rich
flower meadows. It is mind boggling to me that it has to come to this, that the
only way to save the last 2% or 3% of an ecosystem, the only way to get people
to actually care, is for the monarch to put out an appeal – or for
environmental activist like myself to keep bashing our heads against government
brick walls year after year. It is an indelible stain on our souls and our governments that we don’t
care enough to stop the inexorable slide into extinction of the hundreds,
perhaps thousands of species unique to these discrete ecologies.
Putting
aside Prince Charles's seemingly hypocritical stance on badgers, being the
prime instigator of the current mass slaughter, euphemistically called
‘culling’, he at least is making a stand for the last pathetic fragment of the
bio-rich British flower meadows. I am mind-boggled as to how this
situation has arisen, that no-one has stopped the eco-cide of the flower meadows,
of ANY ecosystem cleared to within a hair’s breadth of total annihilation on
the planet come to that.
From the International Express
Wednesday June 19th 2013
Green Prince
Charles is coming to Britain’s rescue
FORMAL Coronation events are coming to
a close and the street parties are a distant memory but the legacy of the
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will live on.
June
9, 2013
Across
the landscape, a lasting legacy of the Queen’s reign is being crafted into a
living monument.Forests and meadows, marshes and peat bogs, are being preserved
for the nation under the Diamond Jubilee banner.Several of the Royal Family’s
favourite charities are engaged in landscape scale habitat creation to preserve
and protect threatened species and help provide sanctuary for other creatures
that may come to our shores as the impacts of climate change reshape the
countryside.The Sunday Express first championed the idea of creating Jubilee
nature reserves eight years ago and called on the environment movement to
restore and invigorate threatened habitats as lasting way to celebrate the
Queen’s reign.Conservation organisations took up the baton and Prince Charles
made his contribution last week when he unveiled his Coronation Meadows dream,
an initiative that will mean one of Britain’s most threatened landscapes
continue to have a presence in each county across the UK.With his mother's
coronation coming up Prince Charles has urged others to protect remaining
meadows.Plantlife, the Wildlife Trusts and the Rare Breeds Trust have come
together to roll out their royal patron’s dream of restoring flower-rich
meadows.Charles was inspired after reading a Plantlife report that revealed how
delicate pastures have been disappearing at an alarming rate. Since the
Thirties, the UK has lost as much as 97 per cent of its flower-rich meadows.Last
year Charles said: “My Coronation Meadows idea came to me when I read
Plantlife’s 2012 report and fully appreciated just how many wildflower meadows
had been lost over the past 60 years.“This year, we are celebrating my mother’s
coronation so there is no better moment to end this destruction and to
stimulate a mood to protect remaining meadows and use them as springboards for
the restoration of other sites and the creation of new meadows across the UK.”
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2
Febru
Bush tucker
trees could yield new harvest in carbon trading Vanessa Mills
Could
enrichment planting of a harvestable crop of bush foods in the bush be a carbon
scheme model? A Kimberley bush food planting project could be used as a
national model, especially on Aboriginal lands. Carbon trading, carbon tax, carbon
sequestration. They're phrases that we hear a lot now, often amongst debate
over which industries will be the winners and losers.Tree planting as a means
of earning money for soaking up carbon has remained one of the potential
winners - and a Kimberley project that plants out a marketable bush food
amongst the native bush is being looked at closely as a model in the carbon
trading scheme. For some years now Broome based
horticulturalist Kim Courtenay has been working with Aboriginal groups on the
Dampier Pensinsula and at Bidgyadanga to establish a Gubinge industry. Gubinge, a Nyul Nyul word commonly used
to describe the green bush plum, is also called Kakadu or Billygoat Plum. It
occurs across Northern Australia and the green bush plum has one of the world's
highest known concentrations of Vitamin C. The fruit, a traditional bush
tucker, is used fresh in conserves, drinks or cooking, or dried and put into
health products and cosmetics. Some Aboriginal families are having success in
growing Gubinge on their blocks or traditional lands, to enhance the annual
wild harvest. But
the method Kim Courtenay teaches isn't one of a traditional orchard or
plantation such as you might see in the Ord Valley. And that's why Kim
Courtenay has been in Canberra this week, describing to the Department of
Climate Change and Energy the ideas behind the Kimberley Training Institute's
Gubinge project. As he explains, enrichment planting - planting the Gubinge
amongst native bush - could be useful on different levels in the carbon trading
scheme.
