The Mossman and Murray river catchments are on course to meet their reef water quality targets with a new $5.6 million investment announced by Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.

‘Mobilising the Murray and Mossman’ will build on previous water quality initiatives supporting farmers with land management practice changes to reduce runoff of nutrients, sediment and pesticides. The new project will focus on helping sugarcane growers to minimise the loss of excess nutrients by matching fertiliser applications to crop requirements.

Stewart Christie, CEO at Terrain NRM, welcomed the additional investment and said the project was targeting win-win solutions for farming businesses and water quality.

“These catchments have already made really good progress towards the current catchment targets within Australia’s Reef 2050 Plan, with farmers adopting best management practices for water quality and implementing a variety of changes,” he said.

“This initiative is a boost to help reach targets, in both water quality and productivity.”

Funded by the Australian Government’s Reef Trust, the project is being delivered by Terrain NRM, Mossman Agricultural Services and Canegrowers Tully. Agricultural extension officers and agribusiness providers will work with cane farmers to identify factors inhibiting the uptake of fertiliser by plants.

Peter Lucy, Manager at Canegrowers Tully, said constraints included compacted soils, sandy soils, weeds and poor drainage.

“The more we can help farmers address these constraints to their crop yields, the more we can prevent excess fertiliser losses running off into waterways,” he said. “The solution is different for every farm so it’s important to provide one-on-one support to farmers to identify and address their individual crop constraints.

“The Tully Extension Network has been providing extension support to sugarcane growers for several years now and this project will help us to continue supporting growers to refine their land management practices.”

Graziers from Ravenshoe to Ingham are part of a new $3.2 million project to clean up the water flowing down the Herbert River and out to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

Terrain NRM will work with landholders changing their grazing management practices in a project focused on reducing the amount of fine sediment in the Herbert River catchment’s waterways.

Terrain’s Jen Mackenzie said the team would also repair major gully and streambank erosion on two properties through rock chutes and pile fields, and would support a number of graziers to fence off waterways and install off-stream watering systems for cattle.

The Upper Herbert Sediment Reduction Project is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

“We are really looking forward to this – we’ll also be working with the Mulloon Institute for the first time, helping landholders to prevent further erosion on their land, and with visiting grazing and soil health specialists who already work successfully with landholders in this region,” Ms Mackenzie said.

The new project will complement a Herbert Gully and Grazing Program that has been running for the past three years, funded by the Australian Government and delivered by Terrain NRM. The project has led to reductions in sediment loads through gully erosion remediation work and changes to grazing management practices.

“These projects are benefitting the land, the Reef and graziers with their soil health and natural grazing practices focus,’’ Ms Mackenzie said. “The engineered works – from rock chutes and bund walls to whoay boys on roads – are significant for sediment reduction. But it’s the changes to the way we manage the land that will lead to long-term and ongoing improvements.

“The new Upper Herbert Sediment Reduction Project will build on the success of our existing project and expand our reach of support for landholders in the Herbert catchment.”

They say it takes a village to raise a child. It also takes one to save our threatened species – that was one clear message from the recent North Queensland Threatened Species Symposium where research was shared on successes and failures in conservation efforts over the years.

The Threatened Species Recovery Hub’s Stephen Garnett told a crowd of 150 people that many extinctions had been prevented, and species taken off the ‘threatened’ list thanks to sustained conservation action.

Within an incredibly biodiverse North Queensland, there are currently 180 threatened species and four threatened ecological communities. They range from cassowaries, gliders, the northern bettong and golden-shouldered parrot to sawfish, marine turtles and Mabi and littoral forests.

Prof. Garnett has been working on threatened species recovery for more than 30 years. He said successes and failures revealed seven facets of successful recovery efforts:

1. Strategic recovery plans with well-considered actions.
2. Recovery teams that covered a wide range of skills and included government and non-government representatives.
3. Finding a ‘champion’ or champions who are there for the long haul and making sure there is succession planning.
4. Legislation and policy – taking it into account and taking advantage of reviews
5. Resources – looking “in all sorts of places” for both government and non-government options.
6. Research and monitoring so actions are strategic and well-supported.
   Telling the story to build awareness and sustain interest.

Prof. Garnett was one of 45 speakers and workshop leaders at the two-day event which brought together passionate advocates for threatened species from recovery groups and conservation groups to traditional owners, scientists, government representatives including Threatened Species Commissioner Sally Box, and natural resource management practitioners.

The first event of its kind in this region, the symposium was organised by the NQ NRM Alliance – Terrain, Northern Gulf and Cape York natural resource management organisations – in partnership with the National Environmental Science Program’s Threatened Species Recovery Hub.

Terrain NRM’s Jacqui Diggins said she saw that recovery teams were tackling similar issues independently during a networking event held several years ago.

“That was when the concept of a symposium came, but it didn’t become a reality until several years later when the National Threatened Species Recovery Hub accepted an invitation to visit North Queensland and partner with NQ NRM Alliance.”

She said the recent symposium was “like four pieces of the puzzle coming together” – recovery teams, traditional owners, scientists and government.

“Recovery planning and actions need to be informed by science, but recovery teams’ ability to successfully implement the plan is heavily influenced by government policy and funding. Bringing together scientists, government representatives, traditional owners, recovery team members and other groups working on threatened species recovery – the listening, talking and sharing is a big step in the right direction.”

There were two obvious outcomes from the symposium:

• Traditional owners need to be more involved in threatened species recovery efforts from the concept stage through to planning and rolling out projects.
• A new working group has been formed to protect the magnificent broodfrog, listed as ‘vulnerable’ and only found in parts of the Atherton Tablelands and Paluma.

The first indigenous research grant has been awarded through a new Wet Tropics partnership, formed to improve land and water management in the Far North.

Skyrail Rainforest Foundation, Terrain NRM’s Natural Capital Fund, the Wet Tropics Management Authority and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service have joined forces to create the Wet Tropics Cooperative Research Partnership.

The partnership has awarded a $40,000 grant to CQ University for researchers to work with traditional owners and others in the Atherton Tablelands region.

CQ University Professor of Tourism Bruce Prideaux said the team would establish protocols for a traditional knowledge and science supply database.

“We will be working closely with traditional owners from several groups and with others in the Tablelands community from local government to other land managers, industry and groups like historical societies,’’ he said.

“In this project we’ll be doing the groundwork, learning more about Country and cultural data needs and designing a framework including intellectual property agreements and cultural protocol templates.

“The aim is to combine traditional knowledge and science with western knowledge and science for improved land and sea water management outcomes.”

CQ University’s Joann Schmider, who is a Mamu traditional custodian from the southern Tablelands, said there was a passion to integrate traditional knowledge and practices into management of the Wet Tropics region.

“We sincerely thank each of the funding partners and each of the research partners, and look forward to the exemplary outcomes that these kinds of joint venture approaches can achieve,’’ she said.

Making the Wet Tropics region and its communities more resilient to climate change is a goal of Zsuzsa Banhalmi-Zakar.

Terrain NRM’s newest board director is an expert reviewer of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, a lecturer in environmental management and an advisor on increasing climate adaptation investment in Australia.

She sees major challenges ahead for the Wet Tropics region in relation to climate change, but also enormous potential in the sustainable finance and green project sectors.

“A lot of people visit our region as tourists, see the incredible biodiversity and potential for green initiatives and have a desire to help make a difference here – but they don’t necessarily know how,’’ she said.

“There is huge potential for climate-resilient and sustainable development goal-aligned initiatives, and bringing stakeholders together is an important way to lead this conversation.”

Dr Banhalmi-Zakar was a member of the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative and contributed to Australia’s first sustainable finance roadmap released late last year. More locally, she is the Green Finance leader at James Cook University’s Agriculture Transformation Adoption Centre. She also co-leads a project to incentivise water quality improvements in the agriculture sector within the Great Barrier Reef catchment and is a member of the Australian Government’s ‘Blue Carbon Method Working Group’ which seeks to reward landholders for coastal and catchment restoration.

She moved to northern Australia four years ago and said joining the Terrain NRM Board was an exciting opportunity to make a difference in her home region.

Tiny beetles could be the answer to an invasive weed that has been found in the Tablelands, Kuranda and Cairns regions.

Terrain NRM and Biosecurity Queensland recently released leaf-mining jewel beetles near Atherton to see if they can stop the spread of cat’s claw creeper – a weed that smothers rainforest and changes the chemistry of soils.

Cat’s claw was introduced to Australia as an ornamental plant. Its spread began in the 1950s and it has since been found from Sydney to Cooktown.

Terrain NRM’s Regional Agricultural Landcare Facilitator Evizel Seymour said a biological control trial using leaf-mining jewel beetles had begun along Priors Creek near Atherton.

She said 1500 beetles were released at three sites.

“If these beetles establish themselves there, the plan is to use these spots as a nursery and release beetles at other known cat’s claw creeper sites on the Atherton Tablelands,’’ Ms Seymour said.

Leaf-mining beetles and their larvae feed on the creeper’s leaves. The South American beetle was introduced to Australia as a biological control in 2012 and is considered a “proven bio-control agent”. Its effectiveness hasn’t been tested yet in Far North Queensland, where there are smaller infestations of cat’s claw creeper.

Ms Seymour encouraged Far Northerners to keep a look-out for cat’s claw.

The creeper has woody climbing stems that cling to tree trunks and it competes with native plants and trees by forming a dense above-ground mat as well as underground reproductive tubers. Its many seeds are spread by the wind and water. Cat’s claw has a yellow flower.

The Wet Tropics’ endangered northern bettong will be better protected through a new project, announced this week.

With an estimated 1000 northern bettongs remaining, Far Northerners are banding together to help the elusive marsupial which is only found in the Mareeba area and is known for its love of native truffles.

The $170,000 project, funded by the Australian Government, aims to improve habitat for northern bettongs outside national park land.

Northern Bettong Project coordinator Chelsy Maloney from Terrain NRM said activities would include cool burns by traditional owners in northern bettong habitat and work with landholders on land management practices in potential bettong areas.

Terrain NRM will also be working with the Northern Bettong Recovery Team including James Cook University researchers, Queensland Parks and Wildlife officers, the World Wildlife Fund, Bush Heritage and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

Recovery Team Chair Sandra Abell said the project “filled a gap” in the recovery of this species.

“The focus has largely been on protected areas like in national parks,’’ Dr Abell said. “Getting landowners involved will be a huge step towards potentially increasing bettong habitat.”

She said the northern bettong population had dramatically declined over the past 20 to 30 years.
The only known populations now were in the Lamb Range and Mt Spurgeon areas.

“Their habitat is very restricted – in some places it is only 6km wide,’’ she said. “Bettongs need cockatoo grass, especially in the dry season, and activities like cool burns help to stop woodlands from thickening and maintain grassy understoreys.”

Over 60,000 trees have been added to an internationally recognised coastal wetland near Innisfail – and the plan is to plant even more.

Eubenangee Swamp’s rehabilitation has been a 30-year project. The tallest trees have created a forest canopy while the smallest, planted just six months ago, extend the southern end of a rainforest corridor that will link the coast with mountain ranges on the Tablelands.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service ranger Chris Roach said the project was a labour of love for rangers and indigenous groups.

“The results are pretty amazing – it was hard work at the start but we’ve got a dedicated team and you can see the difference it’s making,” Mr Roach said. “With revegetation, weed and fire management and water restoration work, we’ve seen huge changes over a relatively short period of time.

“Areas that were infested with weeds, and silent to work in, are now alive with birds, frogs and all manner of wildlife. Ecosystems that were completely modified are now functioning again.”

Rangers are currently working with Terrain NRM and a group of indigenous people to plant native trees on what was previously marginal farming land. The land was added to the national park in 2003 to secure a wetland water source and to strengthen the link between coastal areas at Bramston Beach and Queensland’s tallest mountain Bartle Frere or Choorechillum.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said trees had been planted along Casey Creek to widen the corridor as part of Terrain’s Building Rainforest Resilience project funded through the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

He said the funding enabled Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to employ indigenous people for the next two years to work there on weed control and other revegetation maintenance.

“Planting the trees is the first step – keeping the weeds down so the trees can grow is an essential part of successful revegetation projects,’’ Mr O’Malley said.

“Eubenangee is considered a lowland climate refugia and the corridor is one of the Cassowary Recovery Team’s top priorities to conserve. It has been great to hear that a cassowary and his chicks have already been seen in the area.”

Mamu’s Steve Purcell said the project was bringing younger indigenous people “back on Country”.

A career that benefits the natural environment has brought Hulton King back to Cairns.

The new ‘Emerging Leader’ on Terrain NRM’s Board moved from Brisbane and a law and business background four years ago to a programs manager role with Cairns’ Reef and Rainforest Centre – and the change has also led to volunteering and a board position in the environmental sector.

Mr King said strengthening the link between science and on-ground activities was a goal.

“Communicating the science and research to land managers is important, and seeing how it’s applied on the ground,’’ he said.

“In Northern Australia there are an enormous amount of opportunities in environmentally sustainable use of natural assets and we all benefit from open discussions on everything from water quality to renewable energy and sustainable development.”

Mr King is the third Far Northerner to take advantage of Terrain NRM’s new Emerging Leader mentoring program, designed to encourage the younger generation onto corporate boards.

Terrain’s Board Chair Keith Noble said the one-year position helped future leaders to strengthen their career paths and, just as importantly, brought fresh perspectives to the board.

“There is a lot of untapped leadership potential in our region,’’ he said.  “This program is showing us first-hand just how much millennials value the environment and look for new ways to make a contribution.”

A Far Northern grazing family now has another good reason to count down to the wet season – a large-scale rock chute that needs testing out.

The 50m chute, completed last week, has been built to stop erosion that saw gullies spread like fingers out across the land over more than 30 years, causing topsoil losses on valuable grazing land and sending sediment into the river system when it rained.

Woodleigh Cattle Station owners Pete and Kate Waddell have been working with natural resource management organisation Terrain NRM on improving the land through engineered rock chutes, repairs to old tin mining tailings dam complexes and changes to grazing practices.

The new rock chute comes two years after a 100m chute was constructed on a different part of the Tablelands property.

“This one is in a gully complex that’s about 150m long, a couple of hundred metres wide and up to five metres deep – in places it’s like a cave,’’ Terrain NRM’s Jen Mackenzie said. “It strengthens this section of gully so we can direct water away from the other sections above it via a bund wall that is 600m long and extends either side of the problem area.

“It’s like a funnel for water to flow through to the creek without causing major damage like it has been.”

The rock chute and bund wall structures are expected to stop more than 250 tonnes of sediment a year – or up to 10 large haul truckloads – from flowing into the Herbert River catchment and out to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

Ms Mackenzie said the Waddells, like many landholders in the upper Herbert catchment, were still dealing with the impacts of historical mining practices and legacy erosion issues.

The work is part of a larger Herbert Gully and Grazing Project, funded through the Australian Government’s Reef Trust IV program to target erosion hot spots, which prevents the loss of healthy top soil and productive land and reduces fine sediment loads flowing to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

It is underway on five properties in the Upper Herbert River catchment and ranges from engineered erosion solutions to grazing management changes.