Landholders in our district have been undertaking work to create well structured vegetation communities along waterways on their farms to improve landscape function and farm productivity.
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Five landholders have participated in a project run by Watershed Landcare to improve waterway health on their farms. The Connecting Our Waterways project aimed to improve landscape function and productivity by restoring or increasing the connectivity of riparian vegetation on farms and was made possible through generous funding from Landcare Australia and the Jaramas Foundation.
“We see re-vegetation being a vital part of this project as the area around this waterway has been over-cleared under previous ownership.” said Beth Greenfield, one of the project participants.
“The riparian area runs out of remnant scrub on our neighbour’s property. So the project area provides a wildlife corridor into our property linking it to more robust riparian communities.” she continued.
Project benefits include better management of water, reduction of erosion and bank stabilisation, which in turn translate to increased farm productivity.
“As new owners of this property, we saw this project as a first step in a long term plan to improve riparian ecosystems and retain soil moisture on our property.” said Ms Greenfield.
While the work undertaken will encourage natural regeneration of riparian vegetation, the participating landholders also conducted planting of locally suitable species to speed up the process