SALINITY has risen to the surface as an issue for discussion for North East producers.
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Victorian land management extension officer Kylie Macreadie and her colleagues are delivering field days to update landholders on salinity and groundwater trends this month.
The first field day was held at Bobinawarrah last Sunday while two are being held tomorrow, at Bowmans Forest and Everton Upper.
The North East isn’t known for salinity issues, compared to areas of western Victoria, but there are 330 bores used to monitor groundwater pressure for changes.
Monitoring of bores started in the mid-1980s and over the years, a picture has emerged of the weather’s effect on water tables.
Mrs Macreadie said the field days were in response to the community asking for an update.
“Over the drought we saw a general decline but we have seen a response to our groundwater in the period since the wet year of 2010,” she said.
“So we’ve seen an increase — not back up to what we were at in the ‘90s but definitely a seasonal response and it’s really important to communicate that.
“We’ve got about 240 saline discharge areas in the North East and in the drought some of those have stabilised or not grown.
“But where we’ve returned to average or above rainfall, those sites have spread or new sites have appeared.”
Mrs Macreadie said the saline discharge areas weren’t obvious but some were expanding rapidly.
“Of the 240 sites, they’re on about 180 different properties so that’s 180 different landholders with a paddock or greater that has been impacted,” she said.
“In the North East the majority are areas where you will lose productive pastures and gain salt tolerant species.”
But she said such sites were manageable if landholders were willing to fence off areas, exclude stock and plant salt tolerant pastures.
The field day at Everton Upper will be held at the community centre (the former primary school) on Beechworth Road from 10.30am to noon. The Bowmans Forest field day will be held one kilometre north of the intersection of Great Alpine Road from 1.30pm to 3pm.
Phone Kylie Macreadie on 0427 052 352 for more details.