Projects
National Landcare Program
The SA Arid Lands Landscape Board has received funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program to continue work in protecting reintroduced populations of Idnya (Western Quoll) along corridors between the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park and the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park. This additional funding is an investment in futureproofing populations as they spread beyond the national parks, by targeting the feral threats to the Idnya and their habitat. It will run from July 2023 until June 2024.
Read more about this project here
The SA Arid Lands Board won funding for four projects in the second round of the Australian Government's National Landcare Program (NLP2), which were completed in June 2023. The projects ranged from one to five years for conservation and land management initiatives and included SAAL Landscape Board staff working with Landscape Groups, landholders and communities to deliver the projects.
Feral animal control and removal of invasive weed species to improve conservation outcomes for threatened plant and animal species were a significant component of Bounceback and Beyond and Coongie Wetland Wonders, which were each five year projects. Landscape Legacies shared stories of successful soil rehabilitation and the three-year Building Pastoral Sustainability program, built on the capacity and resilience of pastoral businesses in the SA Arid Lands to adapt to future climate and market variability.
Landscape Priorities Fund
Resilient Rangelands - Managing Biosecurity Threats for Climate Resilient Landscapes is a project that will manage the biosecurity threats from feral goats, pigs and wild dogs, which pose a risk to resilient, healthy and productive rangeland landscapes. It is a two year project that runs until 2024.
It is funded by the State Government's Landscape Priorities Fund, established from landscape levies collected by Green Adelaide in the Adelaide metropolitan area and redistributed to South Australia’s regional landscape boards. It enables investment in large, landscape scale projects that address regional and cross-regional priorities.
The Kangaroo Partnership Project aimed to help manage the significant threat to the environment posed by unsustainably high populations of kangaroos, and ultimately improve the landscape and economic resilience of communities in regional South Australia.
The program gathered key stakeholders to explore and trial shared solutions. It was needed after record kangaroo populations across South Australian regions in 2017, were followed by a massive die off due to the years of drought that followed. The high kangaroo numbers contributed heavily to grazing pressure across the landscape with threats to native plant species at a time when properties had largely destocked and the landscape was unable to cope with the large numbers. This project ended in June 2023.
Future Drought Fund
From the Ground Up is supporting regenerative grazing practices to build drought resilience. Through the project, five demonstration sites were established acorss the region, with a focus on soil health. Key activities included field days, peer-to-peer learning, on-ground training through the Southern Rangelands Grazing Land Management course.
The Assessment of Metering and Monitoring Options for Pastoral Water Points project provided evidence to support and implement change from traditional water point management. A report identified a myriad of smart technology and remote monitoring tools, suitable for use in the pastoral zone. Two case studies provided a cost benefit analysis report, assessing the benefits in adoption.
SA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub
SAAL received funding to deliver the South Australian component of the national Managing Rangelands for Drought Resilience project. It focussed on monitoring feed base and land condition remotely. Five demonstration sites were established and pastoralists received training to develop skills to use satellite imagery and ground truth data using a mobile app and desktop program. Results were shared nationally at the Rangelands Conference in Broome in September 2023.
Promotion of remote monitoring technology options for land managers in the region was made available through the Remote Monitoring in the Rangelands project. A fact sheet was prepared and training events shared information about remote monitoring.