Rural Landscape Design for Resilience and Disaster Preparedness
Rural Landscape Design for Resilience and Disaster Preparedness
Central West Lachlan Landcare welcomed guest speaker, Ecologist Alison Elvin to Parkes
Capacity to Deliver -
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The issue
With the challenges of drought, fire, flood and other natural disaster events including hail storms facing the Parkes and Forbes Shires over the past five years, and additionally, facing the complexities and limitations of the COVID-19 outbreak, our communities in the Central West saw the need for increased awareness of the options for prevention and mitigation or natural disasters.
As part of this project, there was also demand for tubestock from our local landholders.
The solution
Central West Lachlan Landcare welcomed Ecologist Alison Elvin to present at a Resilient Landscape Development workshop at Kelly Reserve in Parkes.
Our speaker, Alison works with rural communities throughout central and southern NSW. She is an ecologist, educator, farmer, and a director of Wildscapes Rural Pty Ltd.
Alison also shared information on plant selection for riparian zones and planting options to reduce flammability, with the intention of developing disaster resilience. This included a discussion about water access points for stock and the importance of providing clean water for stock, with studies revealing that providing clean stock water can increase profitability by 20%.
We were also fortunate to have representation and presentations from Parkes SES and Parkes RFS on preventative and preparative measures for people, animals and properties if a disaster does strike.
Landcare NSW’s People Led Prevention project empowers communities across regional NSW in developing disaster resilience and preparedness skills. The Disaster Risk Reduction Fund is jointly funded by the Australian and NSW Governments.
The impact
Alison spoke about reducing bushfire threats with garden design options including landscaping options, plant selection and mulching, with importance given to your Asset Protection Zone (or the zone surrounding a build asset or structure).
She spoke about the important difference between fire retardancy and fire resistance. Feeding on from this we discussed plant species that do have a higher water content and might be useful in providing retardancy in a fire including: Pig Face; Lambs Ear, Salt Bush, Emu Bush, Corea, Mint Bush. Some of these plants like Mint Bush and Emu Bush can die off on lower branches and need to be maintained to reduce flamibility.
Key facts
- Alison shared information on plant selection for riparian zones and planting options to reduce flammability, with the intention of developing disaster resilience.
- Discussion about water access points for stock and the importance of providing clean water for stock, with studies revealing that providing clean stock water can increase profitability by 20%.
- We were pleased to be able to provide attendees with free native tubestock and guards. This is the perfect time of year to start planting.