Scoping a new Accelerated Research Project
THE Accelerated Research Project is an initiative of the LDC’s Exploring New Incentives Activity Area.
The aim is to influence the development of a continuously improving system of catchment scale support for extension, training, farm planning support and regulatory compliance management for rangeland grazing.
It will do this by trialing different approaches to encourage practice adoption and to broker longer-term arrangements to support improved and ongoing incentives to improve water quality from grazing lands.
Are you keen to restore, and improve landscape function?
NQ Dry Tropics field officers visited Mulloon Farm in October to learn about in-creek structures and riparian management used along Mulloon Creek to repair gully erosion and hold water for landscape rehydration. These structures are part of a catchment wide project being led by The Mulloon Institute with support from local landholders. Similar methodologies will be used in this project.
ARE you keen to integrate innovation and technology into your management system to optimise productivity and profit?
Keen to access training and extension to build yours – and the BBB community’s – capacity and knowledge for enduring landscape function and business success?
The Accelerated Research Project (ARP) addresses three key activity areas:
- restoring landscape function;
- effective management through integrated innovation and technology;
- monitoring, training and extension.
During the life of the LDC project, the ARP will establish a scalable, centralised, multi-faceted whole-of-enterprise demonstration site to ground-truth a range of management and landscape remediation techniques.
A suite of best practice, cost effective, transferrable and replicable approaches will be identified to:
- improve landscape function;
- restore ecological health;
- optimise productivity, while;
- simultaneously integrating innovation and technology into grazing management systems.
This will be supported through the delivery of training and extension to build capacity and knowledge within the BBB grazing community.
Results are expected to produce resilient adaptive profitable grazing businesses that produce positive reef water quality outcomes.
Results will be promoted and implemented outside of the trial catchments by extension staff, scientists and the wider grazing community, to demonstrate how this Exploring New Incentives project can be replicated.
A practical approach – backed by ground-truthing
THE accelerated project takes a holistic approach to gully management, working with the landscape and treating gullies as an opportunity to reinstate ecosystem services and restore landscape function of the demonstration properties.
This will be achieved through the installation of small scale low cost interventions that are currently being demonstrated and are functioning well in the Mulloon Creek project near Canberra, designed and run by The Mulloon Institute.
The reduction in velocity and flow of water off property allows sediment to settle and reduce run off from the demonstration sites.
Click here for information on the Mulloon Creek project, and here to learn more about the institute’s goal of 100 landscape rehydration projects.
NQ Dry Tropics has hosted The Mulloon Institute to run landscape rehydration workshops across the Burdekin region. Click here to read a story about a grazier who improved drought resilience on his property by undertaking a series of landscape rehydration initiatives.
Applying appropriate grazing practices to complement and support on ground works is critical to the success of the Mulloon methodologies. These will be scoped out further in the coming weeks.
NQ Dry Tropics’ LDC Senior Project Officer Lisa Hutchinson is overseeing this project.
For further information, or to register your interest contact Lisa on email lisa.hutchinson@nqdrytropics.com.au or on mobile 0427 594 192.