The Australian Government has opened the first grant application round of the Biodiversity Fund, with applications closing 5pm AEDT Tuesday 31 January 2012. The Biodiversity Fund is a key element of the Australian Government’s Clean Energy Future Land Sector Package and supports land managers to store carbon, enhance biodiversity and build resilience across the Australian landscape.
I prepared a Land and Environmental Management Plan (LEMP) for the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (S.S.A.A.) Lockyer Branch Inc. to support their development application for a Shooting Range in Gatton Shire. Read the rest of this entry »
The ‘Holistic Natural Resource Management of Crows Nest Shire Project’, which I coordinated in 2001-2, saw Queensland’s Crows Nest Shire become one of the first rural local governments in Australia to implement an incentive-based NRM program that included an environmental levy and rate rebates for native vegetation conservation agreements. The Project was later renamed ‘Crows Nest Shire Project Green Nest’. Read the rest of this entry »
I prepared the Living in the Lockyer Property Management Planning Kit as an accompanying resource to the Lockyer Catchment Centre guidebook Living in the Lockyer – A Landholders Guide to Land, Water, Wildlife and Vegetation Management in the Lockyer Catchment and Surrounds. I designed the Property Management Planning Kit as a resource for landholders who were not rural producers, for example hobby farmers, rural residential landholders or landholders who owned bush blocks. The existing Queensland Government ‘Futureprofit’ program was already available for rural producers, but there had been no complementary program for other landholders. Read the rest of this entry »
The Land Use Planning Handbook for the Lockyer Catchment, which I prepared in 2001, describes the ‘land systems’ planning approach used in NRM planning in the Lockyer Catchment of South East Queensland. The Lockyer Catchment was divided into six land systems, each representing a group of areas with a distinct characteristic pattern of landform, soils and vegetation. For each land system, recommendations were made about sustainable land uses and land management practices to be encouraged, and also undesirable uses and practices to be discouraged. Read the rest of this entry »
I prepared the Gatton Shire Biodiversity Strategy in 2000 as a component of the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) funded Gatton Shire Vegetation Assessment and Conservation Project. The Strategy advanced innovative win-win solutions to benefit both biodiversity and the landholders and community of Gatton Shire. Read the rest of this entry »
I led a three-person team in coordinating the Sustainable Management of the Helidon Hills project in 1998-99. From its inception, the project sought to be different. The Helidon Hills represents a microcosm of the issues currently facing NRM planners all over Australia and internationally. These relate to the management of change across a broad front including industry development, conservation, natural resource management, community access to resources, cultural heritage, infrastructure development and tourism potential. The impact of any of these changes in the Helidon Hills area had the potential to significantly disrupt the rich heritage that is woven into the fabric of community and family life in the area, not to mention the threat to livelihood. Read the rest of this entry »