NEWS
A landcare group in the Great Southern is making an urgent plea to local farmers and landholders to help stop it from closing its doors.
A recent series of events has put the Wagin Woodanilling Landcare Zone (WWLZ) on a knife edge but the group is making a last ditch bid for continued funding and it needs farmers to come on board.
The group has been unsuccessful with a couple of grant applications in the past 18 months and it only has two current projects, both of which wind up at the end of 2025. Then the group was hit hard in January when its only full-time project officer moved to the south-west region.
However, the group’s governing committee wants to submit a large funding application up to $450,000 for new fencing and revegetation projects across the Wagin and Woodanilling shires as part of the WA State Natural Resource Management (State NRM) agency’s latest round of Community Stewardship Grants.
Wagin Woodanilling Landcare Zone committee member Annabel Paulley said she was passionate about keeping the group going.
“We’ve had some very encouraging support from State NRM staff about putting in a large funding application so we’re going to give it one last big shot,” said Miss Paulley.
“Farmers could get around $3,000 per km towards new fencing and all revegetation seedlings would be covered by the grant.
“We’ve circulated a survey in the Wagin and Woodanilling communities to canvas their ideas but we really need large and medium-sized farmers to nominate some areas on their properties for new fencing and revegetation projects.
“They can be things like fencing and revegetating salty creeklines to stop surrounding cropping and pasture paddocks from going saline, or fencing patches of remnant bush to prevent damage from livestock, or installing new shelter belts for livestock, or new windbreaks to prevent soil erosion,” Miss Paulley explained.
The WA Landcare Network (WALN) is backing the landcare group’s bid for survival.
WALN Executive Officer Jaqueline Lahne said: “The continuing loss of community landcare groups in Western Australia due to major state and federal government funding cuts over the past decade is really bad news for regional and remote areas of the state.
“Community Landcare groups are largely voluntary and provide massive environmental and social returns.
“Wagin Woodanilling is another group now at risk and their recent call out for farmers to express interest in this big project, which will provide subsidised fencing and revegetation, is an opportunity they should jump at. “Not only does this provide a very cost-effective way to care for sections of their properties that provide ecosystem services essential to food and textile production, it can play a role in their sustainability credentials which is vital to thriving in a rapidly changing global marketplace.”
The WWLZ survey closes on Sunday 16 February after which the group will find out if it has enough projects from farmers to submit the funding application.
Please complete the survey here.
ENDS –
For more information and interviews, please contact:
Annabel Paulley
Wagin Woodanilling Landcare Zone Committee Member
Mobile: 0477 042 653 Email: envirofocus2030@gmail.com
Jacqueline Lahne
WA Landcare Network
Mobile: 0438 600 074 Email: jacqueline.lahne@landcarewa.org.au
