Refresh key resources - South-West Slopes & Riverina Revegetation Guides

Future Drought Fund: Landcare-Led Landscape Resilience - tools and data for restoration decisions

Efficiency - LEP_23-020_LLC07

The issue

A key element of the "Landcare-led landscape resilience - tools and data for restoration decisions" project - a cross-regional consortium between the Murray and Riverina was to "Refresh key resources - the South-West Slopes & Riverina Revegetation Guides".

The development of regionally specific revegetation guides in the late 1990s and early 2000s was critical to the success of the last 25 years of revegetation, and there is now a network of skilled and knowledgeable practitioners who have learned their craft on the back of the hard work of the original authors and contributors of the South West Slopes and Riverina revegetation guides and practical experience with farmers. These guides are still relevant and valued resources in our regions and will always be recognised as the first of their kind in the state.

The solution

The new revegetation guides continue to empower farmers and their advisors to navigate the complexities of managing and increasing vegetation on their farms. A key update has been ensuring the voices of First Nations communities is heard as a vital part of creating the abundance and future thinking required to live with challenging and changing landscapes. The process to update these 'bibles' has been very rewarding and many people have been very generous in offering up their knowledge and experience to create these resources.

While these Guides are an invaluable resource, they do not replace the importance of seeking on-site advice from practitioners, ecologists, and experts in Landcare and natural resource management agencies.

The impact

The updates included:

Created Maps and vegetation profiles for the South West Slopes area north of the Murrumbidgee that have always been a gap.
Integrating climate resilience and drought strategy to revegetation planning.
Integrating more content and consideration of First Nations role land management.
Creating a legacy “How to” front end to the revegetation guides.
Creating the revegetation.org.au website to hold all the future resources and improve accessiblity to the best practice of restoration
and revegetation.

This project was a collaborative effort between Holbrook Landcare Network and Murrumbidgee Landcare Inc. with funding from the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund.

Author: Kylie Durant