The ongoing legacy of SCA

Resilience is a term bandied about a lot these days. Lots of people use the word but how many conservationists really  understand the professions/ instrumentalities which study it and have applied it to practical planning in the field ; The Soil Conservation Authority Victoria (SCA) was an organisation that did that.
 Its pioneering work on Land systems  were means of building concreteness and avoiding endless description and  never ending research.  It was first and foremost a leader in practical support for sustainable agricultural systems ; A pioneer in production ecology

Capability evaluation(CE) is a key objective measure of resilience as we find it in the context of land use and land management.
CE enables you to confidently establish boundaries of risk in the context of soil water and plant processes. I was priveleged to be part of a great planning service for rural producers and innovators for over 3 decades . I was also privileged recently to address an old Melbourne University group of scientists on the subject of risk management and resilience evaluation. More here

If you want to be part of the important future in resilience planning's future, Bookmark the above sites

NVR _ Native Vegetation retention Legislation--

Regulations to limit native vegetation removal are still a major focus of environmental departments. There is nothing wrong with identifyting and preserving unique habitats and species which occupy them , but there is something wrong with focusing on the products of ecosystems .Arse about stuff . SCA pioneered the concept of systems analysis which focused on the forces that create habitat opportunities - the role of seed , soil and soil water relationships  in particular .
Those of us who have worked with and recommended changes to the legislation have occassionally recommended the legislations complete removal because of its crude and incorrect focus- yet it remains as a grand millstone around the neck of governements; a millstone threatening to drown the credibility of government staff on conservation  ;
NVR's focus on the  preservation of dying trees and forest is completely misplaced - yet as you know reading this , Shire staff go out religiuosly to try to preserve museum pieces of wood that are destined to be destroyed by fire. The focus of any regeneration and conservation program should be on the seed and the soil.  Removal of old trees is needed to make way for new trees and new better adapted roadside ecosystem realities and communities  .

NVR  regulations were established several decades ago when there was some risk of conversion of marginal lands to Agriculture . As the chance of that sort of land use application being submitted is very low is the focus of Shires on small numbers of trees and trees on roadsides creating largely nuisance value focus- threatening the credibility and viability of conservation organisations ?
What do you think ?

Prefabricated concrete structure limits landslides

While earth pressures are expected to limit the use of prefabricated structures for erosion control, this once repaired 3 part structure is held against the earth by steel cable around its belly . Easily made, transported and installed from Timboon the structure prevents erosion of the watercourse, which in turn reduces the activity of the landslip rich hillsides below the IONA gas plant near Port Campbell.Note the energy dissipator inside the drop and the straight wingwalls for easy installation . Contact mreforce@telstra.com for more info.

Will U make it to the next gathering

The 3 or 4 amigos have done a great job as usual. HA, DE , DL and JA. Lets hope all the zipping keeps em going, so they can do it all again soon .
April 13th meeting has been cancelled ....but to be sure there will be another . Just where is for you to suggest . Seems quite a deal of disussion material that will have to wait ? Unless HA can get his publishing arm to work?.
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