Sodicity got us tricked . Who would have predicted the soup underneath .

While our  Savannah hill slope topsoils had some friability and stability,  little did our antecedents realize that the old  subsoil could be so unstable . Only sodium to hold the A2 horizon sand together . 
Our landscapes look and feel like concrete most of the time,  so it is  no wonder that  the subsoil  soup phase  ( A2 horizon )  is not easily seen.
Tragic for so many valleys where a drain might cut into that old layer and send the whole drainage line into meltdown, This gully on land south of Adelaide has  only a small catchment,  but the power of salt to start  the underground movement to start a rejuvenation cycle  is evident .

Are the rocks necessary ?
The usual problem is that during over grazing phases both sheet and rill erosion would have carried away the original topsoil in main drainage area .( isn't late winter spring a great time to sell grass?)





What would you do to fix it ? It looks to me that rocks seem to do little and create a nuisance.   IF , sown with lime , and well grazed this paddock will have a chance of being a useful if precarious piece of pasture.

Summary  : Rework , compact and resow with fertilizer but without rock
  Equipment : Small excavator to save topsoil , mixin  a bit of the B horizon especially and lime and compact .
Leave the trees ?   better to rework soils or leave them ? and plant new / standalone trees only where they make sense .
Not if the catchment is small .?

Small is beautiful

SCA modelled a great way to get things done   Joint Inspections they were called on the time sheet -
Because we were small , we could call meetings on site with the bigger players ( planning ag shire farmers neighbours , rivers etc)  .Lots of good/great  things happened as a result of those meetings.
"you worked for SCA " " what would you know " might be how others saw us . Tiny and spread out

If you long for a reminder of that wonderful class of characters who make the world go round  ( the people from the bush) , buy a copy of Dickens DVD .
The managerial class maybe growing,  but remember again that  class who on ground brought  more knowing. more fun more effective.  Enjoy  . 

Took ten years, but Barwon Water finally conceded

When we want things  we don't have ,  or think we don't have ( little  water recycling in Victoria during the last 1000 yr drought -2007 ) we (or our institutes and circumlocution offices ) can  be obstinate and in denial of the other options .
This case demonstrated the old SCA technique of bringing issues ( and bigger parties ) together on the ground.; demonstrating that not just one issue but integrated  aspects leading to a lack of resilience and threats to sustainability.
Short term gain risked long term pain 

1.  The platypus habitat generated by spring flows in the Otways didn't need to be compromised as it was being  .
2. A greatly increased bushfire risk generated by drying out peats 
3. Profoundly poorer water quality and animal healthe risks 
4. Constant vigilance required to prevent ground water pollution . Already stopped the regional tip from being located there 

Sawdust trenches for reef protection

Landline recently told the story of trenches being funded to try and absorb nitrates from cropping areas near Proserpine. While the idea has merit,  the focus is very limited ,
Just another quick fix eroding the countries commitment to effective land use planning ?
 The dynamic of soil erosion sedimentation especially after a cyclone like Debbie has not been considered . Nitrates too can turn to other nasties even IF the trenches were made to be fully functional under the surface.
I was reminded with all this limited relearning of how  we planned to make quite profitable use of excess nitrogen in the Heytesbury - no subsidies required . Saw dust trenches for all sorts of other things .
Its just quite serious that its the political focus on the Great Barrier Reef that gets yet another bunch of world savers to fund some experimentation when farmers and local government need design with nature environmental engineers all over Australia .

Building resilience instead of wasteful reactions to disasters. This is a water control drop structure on one of Australia' s most productive dairy farms.

Are banks and waterways now obsolete in Australia's cropping areas?

Anyone who has witnessed rill and sheet erosion on  a cultivated paddock knows the damage can be severe.  Topsoils have been lost in  a large variety of soil specific slope situations in just one rainfall event  A lot of effort was put into designing and using banks and waterways in the early days of Soil Conservation services in Australia- even on very low slopes.( original post here was on the Charlton area )
Minimum tillage and improved management of weeds and soil structure has greatly limited the need for such works in many areas,   but should certain slopes still have some specific design structures ?( not those red soils again?)

Banks and waterways don't automatically stop sheet and rill erosion and  many of the early banks and waterways in the Charlton area  probably created higher erosion risks because they prevented a  full acceptance of the poor land capability.  We have learnt to resist some of these works to focus more on capability assessment , rejecting risky land use practices  and maintaining soil structure.
That great move aside -Are there still places where banks and waterways can be considered?

• Contour buffer strips?  
• Are they still being built anywhere in Australia ?
• Banks protecting low slopes below steep high water shedding  hills?
• Where soil types and are easily eroded ? (eg where loam topsoils are still in place)
  
• Would high cereal prices push some farmers to use marginal lands again? 
• Have we properly factored in the adverse effects of certain types of terrain  on the actual rainfall events and therefore estimated return periods  in some hill country ?( see previous posts)

YOUR stories of work with farmers

I'm collecting a series of short stories of OUR experiences in soil and water conservation  for publication ( names will be changed  to protect the innocent,  but authorship recognised ) For more info on this high risk,  high paying venture  contact riskwithinreason@gmail.com
David Elvery ( Bendigo ) has identified a great story set posting ( eg on very early Ag in the Millewa)   at  this most interesting biographical site  http://www.vicdofaghistory.org/contributions.html

Nice work when you can get it

The huge floods in Geelong in 1995 were caused by major flows in only a small area of the Barwons' huge catchment. These  floods in 1995 weren't expected ; nor were they well understood by agencies even years after the event.( see notes on Gippsland floods 2007 here )   We locals were predicting the high risk from strong easterlies since the early 1980's .On shore Easterlies are rare down here but are still clearly influential in producing higher than ARR&R curve daily rainfall return estimates.More here   


Is it possible that even today risk management estimates ( say regarding the floods on the east coast of Australia ta the moment ) are not realistic and accurate. Even politically and media skewed?  

Things have changed - but does the risk evaluation system work any better ? 
It used to be our job to dissipate unreasonable fear and direct action on sites . While this can still happen , those jobs mostly no longer exist and the advisory job is much more political with the people who speak  less local and less near the risk. We were taught in the city but we learned most of what we know on the ground
Our powerful media substitutes now talk "the greatest flood ever . the greatest fire ever , the hottest , the wildest, the fastest" .,but they know little  because they know not what the  normal range of resilience in nature looks like; the big picture is not in focus .

We could prevent real damage; had great on site jobs and great challenges to not only identify a real risk,  but try and stop someone from using land in a poor or destructive way. We were close to people so we weren't too careless with our criticisms ( " Don't drive through moving water " we hear re floods this week "
Ours  was work that provided hope for rural producers that resilient and regenerative use of abused ecosystems was possible. Knowing soils and sites we could tell when and where true degeneration and true restoration was possible .  It was work that resisted the careless panic by greens and city centrics that the country was falling apart.  It was work that defined resilience,  the basis for safety , resisted panic and cynicsm simply because any warnings were built on well thought through local connections.
Like good stewards of information and reform  we shared our concerns for unsustaianbility with the owner first .
Our powerful media substitutes now talk "resilience" danger and basis for safety but it's not personal; often too broad ,careless and therefore unable to hit the  motivation target ( Its "illegal " they say to try to get "action ") Such practice does not take  thinking people and real owners with them . Civil disobedience and cynicism grows just as the idea of emergency services grows ( rather than preventative services)

Towards a better service
All preventative services seem to need public talk of disasters to feed them.( we may not be able to do anything about that)  It' s when organisational leaders think the only ones they have to really listen to are politicians that a profession dies .
I pay tribute to the many managers in SCA who knew the difference and stood up for our profession against the evergreen onslaughts of the ignorant and fear prone in politics.