Protecting and managing waterways on farms

About waterways

It is important to maintain sufficient levels of groundcover and effective riparian buffers. They help to reduce erosion and maintain good water quality in waterways.

Rivers and creeks are vital living ecosystems that carry water from catchments into estuaries and oceans. They support thousands of species of fish, frogs, aquatic plants and insects. They also provide water for drinking, agriculture, industry and recreation.

Water extracted from rivers contributes to the economic wealth of the region. Taking too much water can harm aquatic ecosystems, especially during drought. To protect these ecosystems, water use must be effectively managed.

Natural aquatic ecosystems have adapted over tens of thousands of years to natural flow regimes. Water extraction should not compromise the basic ecosystem processes supported by these regimes. 

Why water matters

Proper management of water is an essential part of rural living. Efficient use of water can minimise costs and maximise benefit to you, your property and to downstream users.

Protection of riparian land and their associated natural values can enhance and protect your property and provide valuable habitat for a range of native plants and animals.

Rural living places additional pressure upon water resources. It is important that residential and agricultural activities are carried out in a way that minimises impacts on water quality.

Water conservation is becoming more important. Climate change and growing residential areas are putting extra pressure on our water resources.

Improved management techniques and production activities are essential moving forward. 

Healthy waterways on farms

Some of the things you can do to improve the health of waterways on your farm are: 

• restricting stocks access with fencing or careful grazing management to improve ground cover
• leaving dead trees, branches, and logs in place  
• managing weeds
• revegetation with native trees and shrubs. 

videocam 4:12

Close(Press escape to close)

Video transcript

Healthy waterways

Think this Healthy Waterways Workshop is really about promoting the riparian restoration and having healthy waterways on your farm and the benefits that that can bring for not just biodiversity but also production.

The landholders here have implemented a few different projects where they have fenced out their creeks to exclude stock.

They've done some revegetation works.

They've really let the vegetation ground cover come up, which is really important for preventing those sediments and pathogens and nutrients from entering the waterways.

We bought this property about seven years ago now and because we'd worked closely  with LLS (Local Land Services) before on fencing off creeks and rivers

in our previous property, a year later we had it all fenced off and done it.

 

We put a complete new reticulated water system through the place.

We fenced off all of the creeks and replanted all the creeks.

We basically worked with the LLS they came up with a planting list because they knew the species would grow around here.

We then worked with a local native nursery.

We want to match the carrying capacity the stock rate to the carrying capacity of the property so we don't overgraze or do things like that.

So from an animal health point of view, the bit of research that's been done in this space shows that livestock that have access to high quality water will tend to drink more, they'll eat more 

and that then flows in to improve livestock performance.

And we see that through weight gain.

 

And the other big thing with improved water quality is it also reduces the risk of animal health issues popping up.

You don't necessarily have to go and outlay a lot of money.

You can just be through managing your grazing, managing your stocking rate, stocking pressure according to seasonal conditions so that you can maintain ground cover.

The management things that don't really cost anything but can certainly start to make improvements into water quality, into the health of your farm dams.

This property is in the eastern end of the Southern Highlands, very fertile basalt and shale country.

What we're facing up here is a extensively cleared landscape that's falling apart partly because it is heavily cleared.

So getting these areas fenced off provides linkages, and that really helps increase stability in those ecosystems.

If we looked at this property from above, before these works were done, you would have seen watercourses that would look more like drains or ditches.

There was very little or no riparian vegetation.

But now that we've got those streams fenced out and at least partially revegetated, some through planting, some through natural regeneration, water quality's improved and the system is now more connected.

This kind of work has benefits for farming.

It has benefits for downstream neighbours and users of that water.

It has significant benefits for biodiversity.

It can add value to the property.

I'd like to see extensive riparian conservation and reconnection works.

So many of our watercourses, particularly in the center of the highlands, are in an extremely poor condition.

 

But we can, with collaboration amongst landowners and different arms of government and the community, fence those areas out at an appropriate width, 

manage the weeds, conserve the vegetation that's left and replant what we need to to make those vibrant and robust ecosystem.

 

Local land services are always there to provide advice to landholders and I think this workshop is really good just to show landholders what a system can look like if you put the work in.

I think if it can just give some landholders some inspiration to implement something like this on their property.

 

What it's done, it's given a real buffer to the entire place.

It's created new zones for animals to travel up and down safe areas.

So it's really changed the nature of the place.

It's a far more pleasant place to be.

We want to work with nature rather than against.

To leave the land in better state that we found it.

That's our goal.

Ways to protect waterways on your property 

It is important to maintain sufficient levels of groundcover and effective riparian buffers. They help to reduce erosion and maintain good water quality in waterways.

Managing riparian zones

You can protect riparian vegetation and minimise impacts from agricultural activities. Ways you can protect these areas include:

controlling stock access, fencing, strategic grazing, and weed management.

Read more about managing riparian zones.

Revegetating around waterways

Plants like trees, shrubs and groundcovers along waterways are called riparian vegetation.

Healthy riparian vegetation will make creek banks more stable and help prevent erosion. The vegetation will also:

• filter out nutrients from surrounding paddocks
• improve water quality
• support and create habitat for native wildlife.

Habitat and wildlife

Landholders can play an active role in protecting and enhancing local aquatic wildlife. This can be as simple as planting or adding more habitat to water areas on your land, or fencing out stock.

To find out more about the range of actions you can take to improve your local water habitat, read Fish Friendly Farms.

How Local Land Services can help

Local Land Services can support you to improve your knowledge and capacity to manage waterways on your land.

Programs and activities that support aquatic ecosystem conservation and management include:

• Planning for natural resource management (NRM) at regional and sub-catchment levels. This includes climate change mitigation and aquatic ecosystem adaption options.
• Generating, collating and sharing scientific knowledge. These activities help apply sound scientific principles to build healthy and productive landscapes.
• Promoting conservation practices and building community capacity. This encourages collaboration and shared responsibility for protecting aquatic ecosystems.
• Restoring and rehabilitating aquatic ecosystems. Regional programs are developed and delivered to improve waterway health.
• Monitoring, evaluating and reporting on outcomes. These steps help track progress and guide improvements over time.