Section 8 - Landcare networks

The original vision of landcare was of thousands of community groups working by themselves on local environmental issues. But as landcarers tackled the symptoms of land degradation and came to understand the causes better, the need for more coordinated action became apparent.

A new phenomenon developed - ‘groups of groups’ coming together at a district or regional level to pool their energy and resources.

In 2005, the Australian Government, in association with state and territory governments, identified 56 NRM regions across the country, mostly based on catchments or bio-regions.

The regional approach was an important step in the partnership between governments and landcarers in their battle against land and water degradation. Local communities, supported by government and science, developed an integrated plan for their region to address the environmental, social and economic impacts of NRM decisions.

^{The regional approach has been an important step in the partnership between government and landcarers.}

A model approach

Group: Glenaroua Land Management Group
Location: Kilmore/Broadford/Tallarook/Pyalong region, Vic.
Formed: 1988
Focus: Salinity through revegetation

Since its modest beginnings over 15 years ago, an annual tree-planting day organised by a land-management group, the Northcote Rotary club has become a model for effective Landcare networking.

‘The tree-planting program began as something of an ad hoc gathering, and has grown into a meticulously organised operation engaging over 200 people a year,’ said Glenaroua Landcare member Paul Fleming.

Glenaroua Land Management Group member Max Norris organised the first planting in the winter of 1993. With contributions from both Landcare and Northcote Rotary volunteers, they planted a modest 200 trees one Saturday.

A friend of Max’s, however, saw the initiative’s greater potential. By mobilising Rotary volunteers and local Landcare members, they could plant trees for the primary purpose of addressing salinity - a major problem in an area that contributes 30 000 tonnes of salt a year to the Goulburn River.

^{The tree-planting program began as an ad hoc gathering and has grown into a meticulously organised operation.}

Initially, all the trees planted came from local native seed stock propagated in the homes of Northcote Rotarians. However, as the event grew, the Rotary employed a part-time facilitator to coordinate this work and arranged with students and staff from Thornbury Darebin Secondary College to grow trees in the school nursery.

Northcote Rotary Club has now been joined by the Manningham Rotary Club. With their own nursery at Templestowe in Melbourne, they propagate up to 9000 seedlings a year from seed collected in the South West Goulburn region.

‘More than 70 000 trees have been planted over the life of the project, and it’s been a great model for many other landcare projects across Victoria,’ said Paul.

‘Since 2005 the network has grown to include the Victorian Pajero four-wheel drive club. The clubs started by transporting volunteers over the steep terrain of the Glenaroua tree planting sites.

‘More recently the Victorian 4WD Rural Response Team helped with a fencing weekend to prepare for tree planting,’ he said

The Glenaroua Land Management Group is part of the South West Goulburn Landcare Groups which operates in the creek catchments running from the Great Dividing Range to the Goulburn River near Seymour. It covers six groups—Reedy Creek, Tallarook, Nulla Vale Pyalong West, Sunday Creek/Dry Creek, Willowmavin and the Glenaroua Land Management Group.

The network acts as the steering committee for employing the South West Goulburn Landcare Coordinator, with support from the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and Mitchell Shire Council.

The tree-planting program began as something of an ad hoc gathering, and has grown into a meticulously organised operation engaging over 200 people a year.

Building a core business

Group: Lake Macquarie Landcare
Location: Central coast, NSW
Formed: 1999
Focus: Restoration of ecosystems

When the landcare resource officer project started in Lake Macquarie in 1999, 40 registered landcare groups were working on projects scattered across the cities of Lake Macquarie and Newcastle. Today there are more than 250.

The Lower Hunter Urban Landcare Network used to meet quarterly to discuss common issues, enjoy a barbecue and check out the activities of the group hosting the meeting.

‘This provided great opportunities for landcarers to talk to other landcarers in a social environment, and for groups to show off what they had achieved,’ said landcare resource officer Jessica Wellham.

The network decided, however, that it could step up its activities, and applied successfully to the Natural Heritage Trust for funds for a resource officer.

Lake Macquarie City Council agreed to host the position. The resource officer’s role would be to promote landcare and develop better links with local government, the catchment management committee and other stakeholders, and to encourage the formation of new landcare groups.

At that stage, however, the council’s annual landcare budget was only $14 000, with another $26 000 for coastal works.

When the local state Member of Parliament offered the former community health centre building to the Toronto District Landcare Group as a meeting place for landcare in the area, fortunes began to change.

The centre soon evolved into a resource office for all landcare in Lake Macquarie— and landcare was set to expand. The Lake Macquarie Landcare Network was formed in 2001.

‘The efforts of those early landcarers and the investments from the three levels of government led to the network’s considerable success,’ said Jessica.

^{Wangi Point shoreline. The local environment includes unique coastal, wetlands, riparian, rainforest and lake foreshore ecosystems.}

‘Some groups identify as urban and rural landcare, Bushcare, Coastcare, Dunecare or catchment groups; others are progress associations, tidy towns, neighbourhood watch groups or bushfire brigades; some are more than one; and some are all of the above.

‘Today the Landcare Resource Office is a hub of activity - a meeting and planning centre and a resource repository where members can work with local government, other landcare networks, regional government staff and the broader community to plan and carry out environmental projects,’ she said.

The local environment includes unique coastal, wetlands, riparian, rainforest and lake foreshore ecosystems. The groups are working to restore areas of natural environment to pre-settlement condition, if possible.

Their work could well prove essential to the survival of many local native plant and wildlife species.

Lake Macquarie City Council now considers landcare to be core business, and provides over $400 000 in staff and support budgets.

‘Landcare is the most successful structure for delivering practical outcomes in environmental repair through community participation that I’ve seen since getting involved in local government,’ said Lake Macquarie mayor Greg Piper.

^{Lake Macquarie Council now considers Landcare to be core business.}

Changing attitudes

Group: Landcare SJ Inc.
Location: Mundijong, WA
Formed: 2003 (LCDC formed 1988)
Focus: Remedial works on farmland, bushland, drains, creeks and wetlands

Introducing property owners to landcare in the agricultural shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale (SJ) was a major challenge for SJ Land Conservation District Committee (LCDC) members 20 years ago.

The committee’s initiative, however, started a movement that led to the opening of the SJ Landcare Centre in 1998.

With strong shire council support the centre has worked with property owners, community groups and government agencies to raise awareness of landcare issues and carry out remedial works on farmland, bushland, drains, creeks and wetlands.

The landcare centre management board is now an incorporated body, coordinating land, bush and catchment care throughout the shire and adjoining parts of the Peel region.

‘The main challenge faced in the past was ambivalence or apathy towards landcare by some traditional farmers and small landholders,’ said the centre’s current Coordinator Jodee Lysaght.

‘But, the formation of the LCDC and the SJ Community Landcare Centre and extensive community engagement programs have gradually overcome this.’

^{Preparing a Korri Garden, June 2007}

The centre still faces many challenges - mostly funding. The rapid rate of development in the shire is another, with the focus of landcare activities now extending to urban areas.

‘We need to help all landholders, including developers, understand biodiversity issues, water and drainage management, conservation of threatened flora and fauna and the importance of protecting remnant vegetation. We’re also looking at adaptation to climate change,’ said Jodee.

Many community groups have been formed and assisted through the landcare centre. The centre has supported up to 15 groups at any one time and attracted millions of dollars for landcare, which have been leveraged threefold. The groups have also planted nearly as many trees.

‘One of our aims is to raise funds through enterprise for new landcare works,’ said Jodee.

‘We’ve salvaged timber from land clearing, including marri, tuart and rose gum. Our members have then milled and dried it, and marketed it to local residents and furniture manufacturers.

‘Another successful enterprise has been the recycling of discarded poly pipe from mine sites into fence posts, garden beds and artificial nest boxes,’ she said.

‘The nest boxes, or ‘cockatubes’, are for the endangered Carnaby’s, Baudin’s and red-tailed black cockatoos. They were produced with design guidance from the Western Australian Museum to enhance diminishing cockatoo habitat.

‘They’re now being widely sold to the public and community groups, and also to developers, who are required to provide two nesting hollows for black cockatoos for every nesting tree they remove,’ said Jodee

The cockatubes have raised more than $40 000 for the centre. As the venture continues to expand, it will include building artificial nesting hollows for other endangered native birds, bats and mammals.

^{Korri garden plantings}

A perfect fit

Group: Landcare in the Dorset Municipality
Location: Dorset Municipality, Tas.
Formed: Groups formed between 1995 and 2002
Focus: Integrated catchment management plans

In a small a community like the Dorset Municipality, networks are vital to achieve significant landcare results.

‘With a population of only 7000 to generate revenue, garnering community support and external funding is essential to manage the municipality’s natural resources sustainably,’ said long-serving landcare facilitator Jay Wilson.

Dorset Council realised early that the landcare model was ideal for supporting community initiatives and identifying funding opportunities. It therefore hosted the local Waterwatch coordinator and employed two catchment coordinators to support landcare groups and develop integrated catchment management (ICM) plans.

^{Dorset Municipality is taking a broader strategic approach to natural resource management.}

Drawing largely on landcare groups for their membership, two integrated catchment groups - also Landcare affiliates - were formed to develop and implement ICM plans.

‘In conjunction with these groups, the council obtained a grant from the Natural Heritage Trust to fence streams and remnant vegetation, and for other priority ground works,’ said Jay.

The council realised, however, that a broader, more strategic approach to natural resource management was required, and, with the ICM groups, developed a municipal NRM strategy. Local landcare groups again provided ‘the heart and soul’ of the emerging NRM management committee.

When natural resource management went regional, the council continued to host the Waterwatch coordinator, who then became the northern waterway assessment program manager. Council, in partnership with the regional body, NRM North, also continues to employ an NRM facilitator.

‘I have three hats - Dorset Council NRM officer, Dorset NRM facilitator and Dorset NRM executive officer - with all three of them supported by a partnership between the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country program, NRM North and Dorset Council,’ said Jay.

‘Over a decade this band of dedicated landcarers has contributed to an increasingly strategic approach to natural resource management in the region.

‘What began for many as a means to improve the environmental management of their own property has become a long-term commitment to best-practice natural resource management on a much larger scale,’ he said.

‘There are many reasons for success, but in our case the key has surely been the continuity provided by enduring partnerships.’

In a small a community like the dorset municipality, networks are vital to achieve significant landcare results.

Coming together

Group: Burnett Mary Regional Group for Natural Resource Management
Location: Burnett Mary region, Qld
Formed: 2003
Focus: Collaboration on regional projects

For landcare groups in Southeast Queensland, coming together under a regional organisation has proved a successful move. The original 14 groups that were members of the regional organisation have been joined by another eight.

^{Barung Landcare Group volunteers Wayne and Ryan Webb.}

In the Burnett Mary region, collaboration by the 22 landcare groups through the Burnett Mary Regional Group for Natural Resource Management means government funding has the potential to serve the needs of individual landcare groups better.

The NLP Sustainable Land Use Program also meant that some resources were made available to the landcare groups to carry out on-ground activities and employ a project officer one day a week.

Jonathan Waites, sustainable land-use officer for one of the groups, the Barung Landcare Association, said the program’s partnership approach had allowed the association to remain autonomous but part of the bigger picture.

‘The regional group set up a process that allows groups to come together and still receive government funding for individual projects in their own area,’ he said.

‘The beauty of it is that individual group needs are still being met, rather than having a regional group trying to apply funding to what it thinks should be done.’

The Burnett Mary region is an area of landscape extremes, so requirements for local landcare groups are diverse.

The regional group arranged for landcare groups to come together every three months to share ideas and knowledge and hear from guest presenters.

‘Barung Landcare has good contact with nearby groups, but unless a joint project is happening we don’t tend to catch up with groups that are a bit further away,’ said Jonathan

‘The NLP Sustainable Land Use Program - while it was running - created an opportunity to keep in touch on a regular basis.’

Barung Landcare shares information with its members and other groups through a bi-monthly newsletter that goes to over 800 Barung members, and through field days, trial plots and educational publications.

‘The partnership approach has helped bring diverse elements within the community together,’ said Jonathan

‘It’s broadening our approach, and allowing us to interact with more people and wider section of the community.’

^{Barung Landcare Association members - part of a successful regional organisation.}

Developing a consistent vision

Group: Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board
Location: Head office, 205 Greenhill Road, Eastwood, SA 5063
Formed: 2004
Focus: Developing a regional NRM plan

The Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges region was previously home to 14 NRM delivery agencies, all involved in managing its wealth of natural resources.

With 14 boards responsible for animal and plant control, catchment water management, soil conservation and natural resource management, it was difficult to develop a consistent vision.

As the region supports about 80 per cent of South Australia’s population and provides 60 per cent of metropolitan Adelaide’s water supply, it was important to get the planning right, and work together towards common goals.

The array of planning and delivery bodies was replaced in December 2004 under a new State NRM Act by the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board (seven other boards in South Australia were created under this Act).

The new board identified a desire to develop a regional NRM plan to link people and organisations and to provide clear direction for the region’s precious natural resources.

^{Coming together - merging 14 boards into one.}

The board began extensive community consultations at the end of 2006 to ensure that the plan was relevant and useful to all the NRM partners involved. It held 40 in-depth interviews with leaders from key organisations, including councils, business, peak community and environment bodies, and government agencies.

The second stage of the consultation involved on-line surveys of community groups, business and academic organisations. The results fed into a report exploring local NRM issues around the themes of water, land, biodiversity, marine and people management.

The report details a growing crisis in water resources, as well as threats to water quality and to land and marine biodiversity—and increasing pressure on community groups.

The NRM plan will be implemented in conjunction with a three-year business plan that gives priority to projects attracting finance from a number of partners. This will help to increase financial leverage and impact.

The NRM plan’s long-term view sets targets—with strategies and action for the next 20 years based on the best available scientific, social and economic information.

The plan has been developed in partnership with the entire NRM community. All groups are now setting their own targets and plans that are integrated with the overall regional NRM plan.

Testing the system

Group: Terrain NRM
Location: Far North Queensland
Formed: 2003
Focus: Restoration work after Cyclone Larry

Within hours of Cyclone Larry devastating parts of Far North Queensland in March 2006, the regional NRM group was helping lead the clean-up operation.

Despite severe damage to its own offices, Terrain NRM - formerly Far North Queensland NRM - saw an opportunity to test its systems and networks in a crisis.

Over the following months members helped restore creek banks, vegetation zones, roads in World Heritage-listed areas - and more. Terrain NRM then spent two years engaging the community to develop a regional post- cyclone NRM plan.

In partnerships with landcare and catchment care groups, traditional owners, local government, state agencies, industry, research organisations, conservation groups and schools, Terrain NRM produced a plan that represented the views of conservation groups and agriculturalists.

The plan succeeded in being acceptable to all groups - despite a range of seemingly conflicting views during consultation.

Terrain NRM represents 115 organisations with interests in catchment, coastal and marine environments, conservation, Indigenous cultural heritage, industry, local government, grazing and World Heritage-listed areas.

In developing the plan, the organisations identified ‘community’ as one of the most important assets to manage. In particular, they stressed the importance of Aboriginal cultural and natural resource management, and the need to foster knowledge within the broader community of cultural and natural resource management.

A ‘Lessons from Larry’ seminar organised by Terrain NRM attracted more than 70 people from the region. Even after the success of the post-cyclone clean-up, the community wanted to look to the future in managing the region’s landscape better. This included maximising resistance to, and recovery from, future cyclones.

Terrain NRM’s significant role in the cyclone response not only demonstrated the organisation’s endurance and resilience, but the strength of its partnerships with the community.

^{Terrain NRM - Cyclone Larry provided the opportunity to test its systems and networks.}

Bringing it all together

Group: NRM South
Location: Southern Tasmania
Formed: 2003
Focus: Building the capacity of the landcare network in Southern Tasmania

Tasmania’s southern NRM region covers a surprising number of ecosystems - its coastline is longer than those of either New South Wales or Victoria, and it takes in the state capital Hobart, the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, the dry midlands and the alpine peaks of the wilderness.

Forty per cent of the region is preserved in national parks and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, but other parts are quite degraded.

Not surprisingly, there are over 155 different ‘care’ groups interested in how the region’s natural resources are managed.

The regional body responsible for developing and implementing an NRM strategy in southern Tasmania is NRM South. At the core of its philosophy is that community support and involvement are essential for effective results.

As well as the regional network of landcare, coastcare and other ‘care’ groups in the region, NRM South supports and involves other groups and organisations such as schools, industry, state and local government, research organisations, and landcare consultants.

It has worked with more than 7000 individuals and nearly 300 organisations and groups, organising workshops, information sharing, and other activities.

^{Coal River tree-planting.}

Its philosophy is that community support and involvement are essential.

NRM South has developed partnerships with local government NRM facilitators and the Tasmanian Landcare Association, and is funding projects to build the landcare network’s capacity. Among the projects are the ‘Support for the Care Community’ action planning activity, the ‘NRM Incentives’ program and ‘Property Management Planning’.

The Support for the Care Community project aims to align group activities with regional NRM priorities by training local government NRM facilitators to use the action planning booklet Roadmap to results and resource kit. Already 10 groups have developed action plans.

NRM South began implementing the NRM Strategy for Southern Tasmania in 2006.

With on-ground works just starting to gain momentum, the organisation is already seeing some significant results, including property management plans for 28 000 hectares and work to protect native vegetation, threatened species and water quality on 1000 hectares of rivers and wetlands.

^{Jordan River volunteers.}

Building community capacity

Group: Hawkesbury Nepean CMA
Location: West of Sydney, New South Wales
Formed: 2003
Focus: Increasing community capacity to manage natural resources.

More than 100 landcare groups across the Hawkesbury–Nepean catchment are involved in projects to protect waterways, rehabilitate bushland and increase community awareness of sustainable environmental practices.

Groups are working along highland creeks and beside coastal estuaries, in towns and in the bush, and with school and Indigenous groups. Some complete their projects and disband, but many others work together for years—and other groups keep forming as communities become aware of new projects.

Formed in 2003, the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority works closely with landcare groups across the catchment.

‘Between 2005–07 we supported more than 100 groups, encouraged the formation of several new ones and spent more than $500 000 on landcare support programs and grants for river restoration, bushland conservation and catchment protection,’ said chairman John Klem.

The authority’s eight landcare community support officers offer technical advice, training, assistance with grant applications, and on-ground help to landcare groups. Its activities extend to providing public liability and personal injury insurance and first-aid kits to groups.

It also organises workshops and field days and support from Conservation Volunteers Australia ‘Better Earth’ teams and Green Corps volunteers. Regular newsletters keep landcare groups up to date with what is happening in the catchment and provide a forum for them to share stories.

^{Community tree-planting days in the Capertee Valley, NSW.}

'Foremost among our objectives is increasing the catchment community's capacity to contribute to managing its natural resources is foremost,' said John.

‘The number of groups that keep going year after year, and the steady flow of grants and awards that come their way, reflect landcare’s success in the catchment.

'But most importantly, this success is reflected in the thousands of hectares of land given a new lease of life through restored natural environments and native wildlife habitat.'

^{Members of the Mt Gibraltar Landcare & Bushcare Group.}

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