A vision for Victoria's most significant river health program outside the Murray
Monday, 11 May 2009 04:54
A new vision to restore the health of the Leigh, Moorabool and Barwon River catchments and the important Connewarre RAMSAR wetlands is the most important Victorian river initiative outside the Murray River Rescue Plan, Federal Member for Corangamite, Darren Cheeseman, and State Member for South Barwon, Michael Crutchfield, said today.
Announcing a "Two Pollies in a Punt" river trip to promote the release of the new vision, Michael Crutchfield and Darren Cheeseman said the strategy, coordinated by the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority and developed with Parks Victoria and Landcare groups, was a breakthrough "whole of system" approach.
"This is a great vision for a Three-Rivers and Ramsar system that all feeds into one of Victoria's most important RAMSAR areas at Lake Connewarre," Darren Cheeseman said.
"It will improve biodiversity, improve our river water quality, protect a Ramsar area and create some fantastic jobs."
Michael Crutchfield said the new approach would inspire the thousands of volunteers to work towards a common greater goal.
"This region is one of the strongholds of the Landcare movement across Australia. There are three thousand people involved in Landcare in this region," Michael Crutchfield said.
"While a lot of good work has been done in the past on individual projects, there has been no integrated vision."
"This strategy brings together a whole series of projects with a real focus. I applaud the catchment authority, Parks Victoria and the Landcare groups involved in developing this new vision that addresses the problems on a whole of landscape scale."
The "Three Rivers" program links natural resource management agencies, private land managers and community groups to build resilience to climate change, biodiversity decline and other regional pressures.
The Three Rivers and Connewarre Ramsar program will:
- protect nationally threatened and/or migratory species and ecological communities (as listed in the EPBC Act and sites of national and international significance under Ramsar)
- enhance the condition, connectivity and resilience of habitats and landscapes, including creating a biolink from the Otways to the Brisbane Ranges and the Great Divide.
- address threats to critical aquatic habitats and identified coastal hotspots
- builds indigenous capacity in biodiversity conservation,
- focus on building community understanding of the character of wetland, estuary and river systems,
- increase organic soil carbon through improved land management practices,
- aim to improve river health and water quality,
- protect threatened ecological communities, particularly grasslands and grassy woodlands within river catchment areas,
- reduce the impact and spread of invasive plants and animals,
- improve agricultural practices,
- improve the integration of NRM decision making and effort at the regional scale.
The program covers 400,000 hectares, will engage 70 community organisations in rehabilitation, education and conservation projects, targets 3,546 hectares of very high value native vegetation in Lake Connewarre complex and 1,500 hectares of endangered coastal saltmarsh/mangrove shrub land and 500 hectares of Reedy Lake, which is listed as vulnerable.
Darren Cheeseman and Michael Crutchfield will be undertaking a river trip covering the Leigh and Barwon Rivers and the Connewarre Ramsar Wetland area on Wednesday 29th. They will be accompanied by river health experts from the CCMA and local Landcare representatives. Media organisations interested in interviews should contact Joe Taylor 0416241653. We will meet media organisations at 10 am at the Fyansford Hotel google map reference http://miettas.com.au/map.html?name=Fyansford_Hotel&address=67_Hyland_St_Fyansford_Australia_3221&submit=Street+Mapor undertaking part of the trip
