Photo: Dr Robert Summers, Jan Star, Dion Nicol, Matt Giraudo, Dr Carlos Ocampo at the Healthy Farms Healthy Waterways event.

More than 30 guests attended an evening presentation by the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council at the Waroona Resource Community Centre entitled Healthy Farms – Healthy Waterways recently.

While the intent of the workshop was to share findings of research, it also celebrated the enormous amount of work being done by the community to repair the landscape. Peel-Harvey Catchment Council CEO Jane O’Malley said land owners had been proactive in good catchment management for many years.

“Land owners in the Mayfield Catchment have been rolling out Landcare projects for years. They have worked closely with researchers and applied science with excellent results. This is a community very connected to Landcare outcomes and, by working together like this, we can better understand the catchment to manage it more effectively. We firmly believe good work and good science will guide good investment for the Peel-Harvey’s future,” said Jane O’Malley.

The evening’s presentations were facilitated by the Harvey River Restoration Taskforce and included:
– University of Western Australia’s ‘Farming in a Biodiversity Hotspot’ on novel pastures plus the movement of phosphorus in the landscape.
– Department of Agriculture and Food’s ‘Soil Testing in the Peel-Harvey Catchment’ progress update.
– Peel-Harvey Catchment Council’s ‘Waroona Waste Water Treatment Plant Trial’ an innovative trial to reduce nutrients entering waterways.

Background on the Mayfair Catchment:

Through the activities of the Landcare groups in the catchment, Mayfield has had extensive environmental restoration and, more recently, research undertaken in it. Since the late 1980s, landholders have done an enormous amount of streamlining by fencing and revegetating waterways.

In 2002, Mayfield was highlighted as a priority project area in the Harvey River Restoration Taskforce’s Strategic Directions. More recently, Mayfield was one of three sub-catchments within the Peel-Harvey to have a Sub-catchment Implementation Plan (SIP) prepared for it.

The Mayfield Healthy Waterways project implements elements of one of the SIP projects through a series of events and field days sharing the work being undertaken and outcomes achieved in the catchment. This project is supported by Peel-Harvey Catchment Council through funding from the Australian Government.

ENDS

Contact: Jane O’Malley, Chief Executive Officer, Peel-Harvey Catchment Council, Jane.Omalley@peel-harvey.org.au , (08) 6369 8800

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We acknowledge the Noongar people as Traditional Custodians of this land and pay our respects to all Elders past and present