Period: 2010

Funding Body: Saltland Pastures Association Inc

Funds: $8,000

Project Officers: Genevieve Harvey

Summary

KEY MESSAGES:

• Demonstrate that sites showing signs of salinity can be treated with existing proven technologies which the community can adopt and extend.

• Demonstrate that Saltland Genie and SALTCAP2 are valuable tools to assess and establish saltland pastures.

Demonstrate that investing in areas of low productivity, improvements can be made economically to productivity and environmental sustainability.

AIM:

The aim is to trial and demonstrate the use of the FFI CRC’s SALTCAP2 saltland site characterisation protocol on a local site where saltland variability is high and the recommended targeted plants can be easily observed (highly visual site and major road) by the community.

BACKGROUND:

This property is a highly visible, badly salt affected area which adjoins the Great Southern Highway. As it is visible to road users, it was suggested to the Landholder, Mr Tom Irving, that it would suit the purposes for a trial site demonstrating the methods outlined by the Saltland Genie and SALTCAP2.

Mr Irving agreed to the proposal allowing the worse affected areas to be fenced to enable him to retain as much grazing land as possible.

The area included in the demonstration site has significant degradation to the soils. The site is predominantly covered with barley grass with some areas of bare scald.

Outcome

A highly visible (on major highway) demonstration trial site has been established showcasing saltbush underplanted with saltland perennial pasture.

Report