Estimating the cost of protecting groundcover on privately managed properties in the Australian rangelands: the case of the West 2000 Plus Enterprise-Based Conservation scheme

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Moss ◽  
Jack Sinden ◽  
Richard Stayner

A significant quantity of native vegetation and biodiversity remains on privately managed rangeland properties. Due to a lack of appropriate incentives, landholders do not always conserve these resources at a level that society desires. Regulations to conserve native vegetation can impose substantial costs on landholders. Market-Based Instruments have therefore been developed to provide market incentives aimed at achieving conservation at lower costs. We review the application of a Market-Based Instrument scheme, the West 2000 Plus Enterprise-Based Conservation program, which was designed for the Western Division of New South Wales. We estimate the private and social costs of increasing groundcover on privately managed properties, with and without the scheme. The costs are estimated under actual market and climatic conditions, and simulated under a wider range of conditions. The results indicate that costs vary widely across different conservation areas, depending on the location and previous management strategies of the property. The Enterprise-Based Conservation scheme has increased conservation in the region, and the implications from its application are reviewed to assist the further development of Market-Based Instruments.

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Lunney

Twenty-four mammal species – predominantly the medium-sized, ground-dwelling mammals with a dependence on grass/herbs and seeds – disappeared forever from the landscape of the Western Division of New South Wales in a period of 60 years from first settlement in 1841. The present study examines the causes of this extinction episode by constructing a picture of the changing landscape from the historical record and interpreting the findings ecologically. The conclusions point to an extinction process that can be largely attributed to the impact of sheep, an impact that was exacerbated in the scarce and fragile refuges of the flat landscape in times of intense and frequent drought. This conclusion differs from those of many others, particularly Kerin in the Western Lands Review, who pointed to "the impact of feral animals, rather than overgrazing" as the cause of mammal extinctions, and Morton, who considered that the rabbit was "principally (although not entirely)" responsible for mammal extinctions in the rangelands. The rabbit plague in the Western Division from the early 1880s and the influx of foxes in the last years of the 19th century expedited the local demise of some species and even delivered the final blow to surviving remnant populations of a few species of native mammals but they were not the primary agent of extinction. Historical accounts give prominence to the rapidly growing wool industry in the 19th century. From its dominant position as an export commodity, wool became the chief means of the successful spread of colonial settlement. By 1853 there were about 300,000 sheep based at the southern end of the Darling on the watered frontages, which were all taken up by 1858. The west of the Darling was largely occupied by sheep farmers between 1859 and 1876. The history of settlement around Menindee from 1841 can be read as a devastating critique of the failure to realise that the west could not sustain a pattern of land use imposed on it from another world. The deterioration of the pastoral landscape was such that by the late 1880s the "walls of the pastoral fortresses... were beginning to crumble of their own accord, as the foundations on which they were built — the physical environment — altered under stresses...". The sequence of occupation and land use in the Western Division and the timing of the loss of native mammal species allows the conclusion to be drawn that it was sheep, and the way the land was managed for the export wool industry, that drove so many of the mammal species to extinction. The impact of ever-increasing millions of sheep on all frontages, through all the refuges, and across all the landscape by the mid 1880s is the primary cause of the greatest period of mammal extinction in Australia in modern times.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-293
Author(s):  
Vanessa L. Scarf ◽  
Serena Yu ◽  
Rosalie Viney ◽  
Laura Lavis ◽  
Hannah Dahlen ◽  
...  

1986 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 140 ◽  
Author(s):  
BH Downing

Examination of data on dietary preferences of sheep, goats and cattle suggests that different grazing systems are desirable for each of the three major woodland types (belah-rosewood, mulga, poplar box) examined. Competition for herbs, frequently palatable to all animal species, indicates that goats and sheep are unsuitable for joint use either in heavily wooded country or where annual herbaceous production is less than 200 kg-ha. Supplementary feeding, fire and judicious stocking are proposed as a strategy for inducing goats to eat a proportion of unpalatable shrubs. The literature provides little helpful information on how rangelands in the Western Division should be managed. No reports are given on comparisons of grazing systems, such as rotational grazing, rotational resting, and continuous grazing. No guidance is given on grazing after burning of the rangeland. Recommendations are generally against the use of goats for control of woody plants, whereas local observation shows this to be an apparently effective practice. The recommendations are mostly based on experimental procedures which, although suitable for detecting animal dietary preferences in the short term, are less appropriate for investigation of the effects of grazing on range condition in the long term. Some suggestions are made towards a different approach for: investigating the effects of grazing by sheep and goats on rangeland condition, and the economic implications of this in terms of animal production.


1983 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. 487-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. McPhie

SummaryRegionally mappable, silicic, outflow ignimbrite sheets are interbedded with fluvial volcanogenic conglomerates and sandstones of the Late Carboniferous Currabubula Formation of north-eastern N.S.W. Four of the most widespread of these ignimbrites are described and defined as members. The oldest member is comprised of many thin, originally non-welded flow units. Interbedded accretionary lapilli horizons may indicate phreatomagmatic activity at vent during the eruption in addition to local rain-flushing of co-ignimbrite ash clouds. Of the three other members, two are multiple flow-unit sheets, 160–180 m in aggregate thickness. Substantial portions of these sheets were originally welded. The remaining member is a simple welded ignimbrite characterized by abundant spherulites and lithophysae. Irregular pre-eruption topography and contemporaneous erosion were responsible for thickness variations of the ignimbrite sheets. Some palaeovalleys, now delineated by the ignimbrites, persisted in spite of repeated pyroclastic influxes. Relic pumice, shards and crystal fragments are ubiquitous components of the sedimentary facies of the Currabubula Formation, and were probably derived from originally poorly consolidated pyroclastic deposits such as airfall ash layers and non-welded ignimbrites. No surface trace of the sources of these ignimbrites exists. However, internal facies, thickness variations and volumes of the ignimbrites indicate that they periodically emanated from a multiple-caldera terrain which was continuously active during the Late Carboniferous, and located several kilometres to the west of present exposures.


Toxins ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazel Farrell ◽  
Penelope Ajani ◽  
Shauna Murray ◽  
Phil Baker ◽  
Grant Webster ◽  
...  

An end-product market survey on biotoxins in commercial wild harvest shellfish (Plebidonax deltoides, Katelysia spp., Anadara granosa, Notocallista kingii) during three harvest seasons (2015–2017) from the coast of New South Wales, Australia found 99.38% of samples were within regulatory limits. Diarrhetic shellfish toxins (DSTs) were present in 34.27% of 321 samples but only in pipis (P. deltoides), with two samples above the regulatory limit. Comparison of these market survey data to samples (phytoplankton in water and biotoxins in shellfish tissue) collected during the same period at wild harvest beaches demonstrated that, while elevated concentrations of Dinophysis were detected, a lag in detecting bloom events on two occasions meant that wild harvest shellfish with DSTs above the regulatory limit entered the marketplace. Concurrently, data (phytoplankton and biotoxin) from Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) harvest areas in estuaries adjacent to wild harvest beaches impacted by DSTs frequently showed elevated Dinophysis concentrations, but DSTs were not detected in oyster samples. These results highlighted a need for distinct management strategies for different shellfish species, particularly during Dinophysis bloom events. DSTs above the regulatory limit in pipis sampled from the marketplace suggested there is merit in looking at options to strengthen the current wild harvest biotoxin management strategies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-241
Author(s):  
Volker W. Framenau ◽  
Barbara C. Baehr

The wolf spider (Lycosidae Sundevall, 1833) genusArtoriaThorell, 1877 is revised for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Australia, to include 34 species, 21 of which are new to science:A.albopilata(Urquhart, 1893),A.altaFramenau 2004,A.beaurysp. n.,A.barringtonensissp. n.,A.belfordensissp. n.,A.berenice(L. Koch, 1877),A.bondisp. n.,A.boodereesp. n.,A.comleroisp. n.,A.corowasp. n.,A.equipalussp. n.,A.extraordinariasp. n.,A.flavimanaSimon, 1909,A.gloriosa(Rainbow, 1920),A.grahammilledgeisp. n.,A.helensmithaesp. n.,A.howquaensisFramenau, 2002,A.kanangrasp. n.,A.kerewongsp. n.,A.lineata(L. Koch, 1877),A.marootasp. n.,A.mckayiFramenau, 2002,A.mungosp. n.,A.munmorahsp. n.,A.myallensissp. n.,A.quadrataFramenau, 2002,A.slatyerisp. n.,A.streperasp. n.,A.taeniiferaSimon, 1909,A.teraniasp. n.,A.triangularisFramenau, 2002,A.ulrichiFramenau, 2002,A.victoriensisFramenau, Gotch & Austin, 2006, andA.wilkieisp. n.LycosapruinosaL. Koch, 1877, currently listed inArtoria, is considered a nomen dubium.Artoriaare largely forest dwellers, although some species have preferences for more open areas such as riparian or coastal environments or grasslands. Consequently, the genus mainly occurs east and west along the Great Dividing Range, although some species can be found into the Riverina, Cobar Peneplain and Darling Riverine Plains IBRA regions to the west.


Soil Research ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 539 ◽  
Author(s):  
CJ Chartres ◽  
RW Cumming ◽  
JA Beattie ◽  
GM Bowman ◽  
JT Wood

Samples were collected from unimproved road reserves and adjacent paddocks on a 90 km transect crossing red-brown earth soils in the west and red earth soils in the east. Measurements of pH in water and CaCl2 indicated that the red earths have been acidified by approximately 0.5 pH units over the last 30-40 years. Small increases in CaCl2-extractable A1 were also recorded for the acidified red earths. The red-brown earths do not appear to have been markedly affected by soil acidification to date. Clay mineralogical data and measurements of cation exchange capacity of the <2 �m fraction indicate that red-brown earths are better buffered against acidification than red earths. However, small differences in management practices and rainfall along the transect may also be partially responsible for differences in acidification between soil types.


1978 ◽  
Vol 18 (92) ◽  
pp. 370 ◽  
Author(s):  
JM George ◽  
RA Pearse

Merino ewes were grazed for 10 years at stocking rates of 8, 12 and 16 ha-1, lambing in winter, spring or summer on a phalaris/white clover pasture on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. Wool production, wool yield and count, and lambing and weaning rates were established for the wide range of climatic conditions experienced. A spring lambing is indicated under the within-year price relationships experienced. Under a wide range of wool and lamb prices the optimum stocking rate varied from 12 to 16 ewes ha-1 depending on labour costs.


2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. K. Conyers ◽  
C. L. Mullen ◽  
B. J. Scott ◽  
G. J. Poile ◽  
B. D. Braysher

The cost of buying, carting and spreading limestone, relative to the value of broadacre crops, makes investment in liming a questionable proposition for many farmers. The longer the beneficial effects of limestone persist, however, the more the investment in liming becomes economically favourable. We re-established previous lime trials with the aim of measuring the long-term effects of limestone on surface acidity (pH run-down), subsurface acidity (lime movement) and grain yield. The study made use of experiments where there was adequate early data on soil chemical properties and cereal yields. We report data from 6 trials located at 4 sites between Dubbo and Albury in New South Wales. The rate of surface soil (0–10 cm) pH decline after liming was proportional to the pH attained 1 year after liming. That is, the higher the pH achieved, the more rapid the rate of subsequent pH decline. Since yields (product removal) and nitrification (also acid producing) may both vary with pH, the post-liming pH acts as a surrogate for the productivity and acid-generating rate of the soil–plant system. The apparent lime loss rate of the surface soils ranged from the equivalent of nearly 500 kg limestone/ha.year at pH approaching 7, to almost zero at pH approaching 4. At commercial application rates of 2–2.5 t/ha, the movement of alkali below the layer of application was restricted. However, significant calcium (Ca) movement sometimes occurred to below 20 cm depth. At rates of limestone application exceeding the typical commercial rate of 2.5 t/ha, or at surface pH greater than about 5.5, alkali and Ca movement into acidic subsurface soil was clearly observed. It is therefore technically feasible to ameliorate subsurface soil acidity by applying heavy rates of limestone to the soil surface. However, the cost and risks of this option should be weighed against the use of acid-tolerant cultivars in combination with more moderate limestone rates worked into the surface soil.There was a positive residual benefit of limestone on cereal grain yield (either barley, wheat, triticale, or oats) at all sites in both the 1992 and 1993 seasons. While acid-tolerant cultivars were less lime responsive than acid-sensitive ones, the best yields were generally obtained using a combination of liming and acid-tolerant cultivars.The long-term residual benefits of limestone were shown to extend for beyond 8–12 years and indicate that liming should be profitable in the long term.


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