Did you know that current state of Australia’s valuable agricultural land is 60% degraded and continuing to degrade? For those of us that love the land – this is a frightening scenario.
There is however a good news story- and there are not that many good news stories about improving the health of our landscapes. The story is about brave people, willing to take action that in many areas is seen as unorthodox, but keeping at it anyway and meticulously recording results so people can witness the science. This action gave people a tangible demonstration of “natural sequence farming”. Peter Andrews OAM used this approach and took affirmative action at Tarwyn Park in the Hunter Valley and the results stood testament to this whole of landscape approach.
A key part of natural sequence farming is rehydrating the landscape. Landscape rehydration should be key priority in agricultural areas around Australia. Dehydrated landscapes have been negatively affected by soil erosion, soil compaction, and depletion of organic matter and draining of wetlands.
Continuing degradation of streams, riparian and adjacent floodplains, as well as slope erosion and land clearing has affected the resilience of our catchments and had devastating consequences on agricultural landscapes, biodiversity, and water and soil quality.
The result is landscapes that lack the resilience to respond to climatic changes (drought), increased susceptibility to bushfire, diminished resistance to week invasion and reduction in natural fertility.
The Mulloon Institute is helping to turn this around and have been working tirelessly in this space over the past decade. Check them out on their website and be prepared to be amazed.
https://themullooninstitute.org/contact/
Or watch Soaking up Australia’s Drought – Australian Story October 28th 2018