Soils are important to the natural resource base, to agricultural productivity and to the delivery of a wide range of ecosystem services needed by the Australian community. Farmers manage more than sixty per cent of the Australian landscape, and the management practices they choose have a significant impact on air, land and water resources.

The condition of the natural resource base affects the quality of ecosystem services available to the community. Wind and water erosion, soil carbon rundown and soil acidification processes reduce the land’s capacity to provide clean air and water and productive soils, biodiversity protection, maintain the resilience of the landscape to climate change and produce food and fibre. Recognising the importance of these issues, Caring for our Country, the Australian government’s natural resources management initiative, is funding projects that provide information to farmers about the land management practices needed to conserve and enhance the long term capacity of the nation’s resource base, and contribute to maintaining a healthy environment.

Caring for our Country is aiming to assist 42 000 farmers to improve practices across 70 million hectares of agricultural land by 2013. Trends in the adoption of practices that reduce the risk of soil acidification, soil loss through wind and water erosion and increase the carbon content of soils are being tracked for over 150 000 farms across Australia using the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Agricultural Resources Management Survey.  No-till farming, Young, NSW Practices monitored include cultivation, stubble management and soil pH management for cropping industries, soil pH management and inter row cover for horticulture industries, ground cover management and soil pH management in the dairy industry, and ground cover management in other grazing industries (meat cattle/sheep).

Emphasis is being given to practices that affect the proportion of ground cover retained, because this factor has a significant impact on the amount of soil redistributed or lost through wind and water erosion, and on the biomass which could contribute to soil carbon storage. 

Understanding Salinity
Salinity is the accumulation of salt in land and water to a level that impacts on both the natural and built environment.  Salinity in soil is one of the major issues facing the NSW landscape. The problem affects both urban and rural landscapes and has an impact on farms, irrigation areas, wetlands, rivers, drinking water and infrastructure such as buildings and roads. It is a national issue.

While salt occurs naturally in our landscape, human activities such as land clearing and inefficient water use can increase the problem. It has taken many decades for the problem to emerge and will be with us for a long time to come. Solving it is a shared responsibility involving land managers, conservationists, Aboriginal communities, scientists, businesses and all levels of government.

The NSW Government has implemented a Salinity Strategy which is designed to slow down the increase in salinity, and lay the foundations for salinity management into the future. 

Land & Soil Sustaining Catchment Health
Land and soil capability classification is a major tool to assess the sustainability of land management practices. Within each class there is a range of limitations caused by differences in climate, soil type, slope, landform position, aspect, nutrient balance, acidity, salinity, drainage, stoniness and a host of other physical factors. Each limitation will need to be managed to make full use of the capability of the land.

The system presented here focuses on modern soil management techniques and cropping and grazing systems to improve catchment health. It has been modified to meet the needs of land managers in the area managed by the Central West Catchment Management Authority.