The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, in partnership with Murray Darling Basin Authority, Office of Environment and Heritage, Parks Victoria and Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Corporation, is holding a research conference to bring together a broad range of researchers who have been involved with research and monitoring projects in the Barmah-Millewa Forests.
The primary audience for the conference will be researchers and natural resource managers
> from various agencies that are responsible for the management of the area.
Attendance is free with meals included during the day. Accommodation and the conference dinner costs are to be met directly by attendees.
This two-day event will be held at the Park Lake Shepparton from Tuesday 30th April to Wednesday 1st May 2013. More information here.
The Sustainable Rivers Audit (SRA) is an initiative of Basin governments, coordinated on their behalf by the Murray–Darling Basin Authority. Overseen and reported by an independent group of river ecologists, the Independent Sustainable Rivers Audit Group, the SRA provides scientifically robust assessments of the ecological health of the Murray– Darling Basin rivers.
This new report outlines the nature of the Audit and the ways that environmental data are used to assess
ecosystem health. It presents ‘report cards’ on river ecosystem health for each of the 23 valleys in the Basin. Each of the valleys was sampled once for Vegetation and Physical Form, twice for Fish, three times for Macroinvertebrates and four times for Hydrology. Follow this link for online access. Printed copies can also be requested here.
Alys Wall, SRA Theme Coordinator
RipRap is a magazine that collates and synthesises science and practice around river management themes and presents this knowledge in ways that make it relevant and applicable for policy-makers and practitioners alike. The magazine started in 1997 and has a large following amongst those in the Australian community with shared interests in river and riparian management. After a brief lapse, we are now delighted that RipRap is back with a new look and approach to sharing knowledge.
The latest edition of RipRap is on ‘bringing back native fish’, and contains 60 pages of great articles featuring fish related science, on-ground works, oral history and community engagement from across Australia. It is a wonderful, uplifting edition, great to hand out at conferences, workshops and field days, as well as to have in the tea room at work, and as a reference document on what is happening ’fish-wise’ in different parts of
the country. You can take a sneak peek of the first 7 pages here.
To order your hard copy (ies) of RipRap follow this link. We expect to be delivering copies around the end of August.
Congratulations to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority in delivering the new Proposed Basin Plan which has:
involved a major effort by basin communities, State Governments, local councils, catchment management authorities, community groups, people in towns, people on the land, indigenous communities and business groups. This is not an inclusive list either – so many individuals and groups have contributed considerable time and energy to help us to build this Plan.
It has been an intensive process over the last 12 months, involving hundreds of round table meetings and briefings in council facilities, on farms, racing tracks or town halls. There have been formal and informal meetings, conversations and thousands of phone calls. Based on local preferences and at your invitation we have responded to your desire to talk and to share information.
Our role now, is to summarise and present what we have heard and the associated changes we have made to the Plan as a result. (MDBA)
The MDBA website has summaries of the proposed Basin Plan, the full document and other supporting information to encourage people to read, watch a video, consider and discuss with others.
Siwan
Over the past few years I have been fortunate enough to be part of an Expert Panel providing advice to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority on a portfolio of work examining risks to managing water resources in the MDB. The Risk Assessment Section within MDBA’s Natural Resources Management Division has funded a suite of projects to investigate:
- risks driven by climate change (eg: drought, bushfire, salinity dynamics);
- risks relating to catchment processes (eg: forest hydrology, afforestation, invasive species, floodplain dynamics, land use); and
- risks arising from direct water interception and use (eg: current management arrangements).
I have read all the reports from this research invesment and the findings and knowledge gained from these projects are enlightening. We can now understand the likely impacts of these risks, the likelihood of their occurrence and their consequences. This should enable us to develop better management strategies for the future.
We have provided a brief summary of each of these reports and a hotlink through to the complete research final report, we hope you get a lot out of reading, distilling and applying this knowledge to your situation. We are also very happy to put more links into any other resources you think are useful for this topic, which ties in very well with the theme for the Australian Stream Management Conference 2012 of Managing for Extremes. Click here to go through to our new managing risks resources.
Siwan
Research | Siwan Lovett | 
25 March 2013 11:03 am | 
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