Green Dams project continues to support farmers in South Gippsland

After wrapping up its successful Green Dams project in June 2024, South Gippsland Landcare Network (SGLN) has received a second round of funding through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF).

Supported by Food & Fibre Gippsland, one of eight drought ‘Hubs’ established by the FDF as and part of the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub (Vic Hub), the Green Dams initiative will continue supporting property owners interested in enhancing dams on their property.

In the second year of the project, a case study dam will be established on a farm in Arawata. There will also be a focus on farmer education, with a training workshop and a public field day.

The training workshop was held in Hallora in late November 2024, where participants heard from wetland ecologist David Carew about the benefits of plants in and around dams, including improved water quality for stock, and increased biodiversity.

David covered how to establish plants in the different zones from shallow to deeper and which species are appropriate for which area.

Kirby Leary, SGLN Project Officer, and David then took participants through a process to develop a plan for dam enhancement works on their own property, with advice about all aspects from fencing and revegetating, through to monitoring.

Reflecting on the high level of interest generated by the original project, Kirby described SGLN’s approach as one that brings farmers and landholders on board and builds their capacity to implement the ‘Green Dams’ method on-farm.

“We had a lot of interest and high numbers of participants at the two field days at Cape Liptrap,” Kirby said.

“This new workshop was designed to help landowners make a step-by-step plan for their own dam, with achievable goals and practical steps that they can get started with.”

A farm walk was then held at landowner Glenn Duncan’s farm, where Louise Kerferd from Melbourne Water discussed the support they provided to help Glenn fence and revegetate dams and waterways on his property. 

After the workshop, participants said they were going to check their dams to identify what plants are currently growing, and to fence off dams and plan revegetation works. 

A field day will be held in Arawata at the case study dam in May 2025, to share the story and results to date. Keep an eye on our enews for information about the event and how to register (you can sign up to receive the monthly enews below).

Sign Up for Our Monthly Newsletter

Related posts

Register your details

Please provide your details to learn more about South Gippsland biodiversity and to offer your thoughts and suggestions about protecting it.

We’ll send you an email confirming contact, and details of when our next workshop is being held.

Collection Notice

 

Tell us your thoughts about biodiversity protection

What actions do you think should be taken to better protect our living world in South Gippsland? What are the priorities?