Experiences
Highlights of EMU work done in Australia during 2016
EMU-nising NSW Soil Conservation Service
The internationally renowned NSW Soil Conservation Service led the world in innovative rangeland rehabilitation. It is now part of NSW Local Land Services as is the wont of State Governments to restructure and rename. Hugh Pringle has been contracted by Local Land Services Western to take on major projects in the far west of the state. See photos 1 - 3 below.
"This has been a wonderful opportunity for reciprocal learning as EMU focuses on saving threatened country and the Local Land Services (LLSW) focuses on “bang for the buck” restoration work. We are now integrating these approaches so that we stabilise gully heads in healthy watercourses and spread and infiltrate valley-side inflows in our works west of White Cliffs. I was always a sceptic about repairing severely degraded land based on the lack of soil in the Murchison region of WA. But here in far NW NSW, you scratch the soil and it grows plants!"
"Once again, EMU holds true to its ecosystem understanding approach, but is also very keen to learn new options from others! I am also taking LLSW ideas back to Namibia to add value to our work."
Photo 1: A drain to take water off the main access road actually brings water to the road, has exacerbated a lateral gully head and started one of its own!
Photo 2: Carefully located earthworks to harvest local rainfall and then spread excess water away from gullies (Local Land Services work).
Photo 3: A beautiful gilgai alluvial plain being “eaten” by an aggressive gully head. We will stop it and rejuvenate the dehydrated wetland features below.
(Photos thanks to Luke and Sarah Mashford, Katalpa Station NSW)
November 2016 EMU Workshops:
In November 2016 Hugh Pringle, in partnership with Greening Australia, led EMU workshops for the Aboriginal community at Yandeyarra and Kangan Station in the Pilbara WA (photos below).
(Photos of Yandeyarra/Kangan Station EMU workshop by Greening Australia)
Following the Pilbara workshop Hugh ran three two-day courses on rangeland functioning and rehydration near Yalgoo, Shark Bay and Mt Augustus in WA. Daytime temperatures in these areas was throughout this period above 40 degrees! However, this didn’t dim the enthusiastic participation and the workshops went really well with follow-up activities on the drawing board.
Both these sets of work were part of a Greening Australia project funded through the State NRM grant rounds, and facilitated by Greening Australia.
2000-2007 Gascoyne/Murchison Western Australia – 56 pastoral stations experienced EMU workshops and follow-ups.
‘I believe EMU is hugely successful over and above anything else done here before, because of the process which at first engages the pastoralist. This engagement is maintained throughout by the strength of partnership with EMU and the EMU team member’s knowledge and an empowerment of innate knowledge many pastoralists inherently carry.’ Karen Morrisey, pastoralist, Meeline Station
Some EMU projects led by Hugh Pringle: (see also Resources)
2003 Auas Oanob Conservancy (Namibia) - ongoing projects and research, but starting as a dual “foot in the Namibian water” and training exercise for EMU staff, with German –speaking farmers (it was great to show the trainees that despite quite different scales of management as well as cultures and language, the process really worked and the German farmers have been enthusiastic participants since then)
2006 Bush Heritage Australia - EMU principles were used in Western Australia and are infused in some of BHA processes now.
2008 Centralian Land Management Association (CLMA) NT Australia -This has been ongoing with about 20 properties engaged
2009 South Australia - numerous projects in the Marla Oodnadatta, Kingoonya, North Flinders and Middleback Ranges areas.
2010-2011 Central Lands Council (CLC) NT Australia. Two Aboriginal Land Trusts were pilots to adapt EMU to Anmatyerr and Arrente culture and then a CLC “EMU trainee” successfully used the adapted process on another Aboriginal Land Trust.
2011 Erora villages with IRDNC (Namibia) - this is ongoing, fitting EMU to a strong tribal culture
2012 APY - EMU is being used to reverse the degradation of general landscapes and protect special cultural sites within a matrix where Traditional Owners will choose where pastoralism is allowed on their land.
2013 Namibia - The German Government has funded a four year program to research key EMU “geomorphic ecology” ideas and develop multi-media materials to support a diverse range of landholders and tribal cultures.
2013 Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation - EMU currently working on an iconic deltaic wetland with Traditional Owners and the Gangalidda and Garawa Rangers with proposals to expand the initiative to other lands.
2015 Australian Bush Heritage. Edgbaston Reserve, Queensland. 24th – 26th March 2015
We are fortunate to have recently had Dr Ken Tinley volunteer his time on Edgbaston to give advice on measures to repair & restore problematic aspects of the catchment’s run off.
Ken spent a lifetime working in African game parks as a ranger and ecologist. In Australia, along with Dr Hugh Pringle he developed the Ecological Management Understanding (EMU) philosophy and methodology that Bush Heritage has implemented on our Charles Darwin and Eurardy reserves in Western Australia.
At Edgbaston Ken quickly took in and mapped the lay of the land. He then provided us with practical and cost efficient solutions to deal with the catchment run-off that has been affecting a spring critically important to the red-fin’s survival. We’re now in the process of implementing his advice (work that is enabled by generous donations from our supporter's).
South Africa
In the early 1970’s brothers Dave and John Varty established a wildlife conservancy on their family farm that borders on Kruger National Park, South Africa.
The following is from Dave’s book The Full Circle published in 2008.
“Despite our success, we were still searching for answers to the many complex conservation and land management issues we faced. In particular, the disappearance and decline of certain species was, for us, a matter of great concern. Eventually Dr Ken Tinley was able to help us. When John heard of him we were getting desperate. Yes, he was a professional and had a doctorate in wildlife management. But he had something else. Unlike other experts we consulted, his ideas were formulated on the ground by incredible powers of observation. He understood landscape patterns, geomorphology and the broader macro-issues of conservation development and the need to involve rural communities. He understood how to repair Londolozi’s land which, like the surrounding area, was drying out.”
“Like turning the pages of a book, Ken laid the story before our eyes. He told us exactly how, over the past century, man had damaged the natural environment. Man had brought in cattle, had built roads and even a railway line. Many of the roads and tracks and even fire-breaks acted like funnels accelerating the run-off of rainwater because they were built straight down hillsides or on the seeplines. We had also come in on the back-end of a cattle ranching operation and much of the topsoil had been compacted by cattle, particularly at water points. The explosion in the wildebeest population and the confinement of many thousands of these animals within Sabi Sand when the fence was closed in 1964, also exacerbated the problem. The result was that instead of rainwater soaking into the ground, it ran off, and where the natural ground cover had disappeared, it took topsoil with it. When the water table dropped and the land dried out, trees and woody shrubs invaded the grasslands and the wetlands disappeared.
Tinley was quite brutal with us. He told us that we reminded him of all conservationists: ‘You want to get your picture on the social page because you’re going to save cheetah and elephants,’ he would say. ‘That’s the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard. Don’t save the animals. They don’t need saving. Protect your land from bad land-use practices, create space for the animals and they will thrive.’”
“Now we had something to run with we quickly got down to work. Using an aerial map, Ken showed us where things had gone wrong and where we would have to clear tree species that had invaded the open grasslands: how the great natural plan of the ecosystem had been altered by man’s intervention. He showed us how we could micro-manage our little patch for greater biodiversity and greater drought resistance.”
“ Two or three weeks later a brand new D5 yellow bulldozer arrived at Londolozi. We had it on loan for five weeks. We rigged up lights and worked night and day. BP also helped by donating diesel. The trees came down, the dongas were plugged and soon the wetlands that had dried up started to fill with water. The water table rose. Then the game started to reappear.”