soil-conservation-people-religion-and-land.pdf - South West NRM

primarily of landholders. After similar but smaller
scale activities in victoria and South Australia, the
Cattlemen's Union in Queensland put forward a major
- initiative in 1988, calling for the establishment of a
network of Land Care Committees as the basis for
producer-led improvements in land use (Douglas, 1988) .
This development was closely associated with the joint
ACF/NFF establishment of land management guidelines and
property planning goals.
4. Tree Planting Groups and Competitions
The early 1980s brought an expanded interest in treeplanting,
first as a means of controlling salinity and
later as a measure to enhance wildlife and improve
landscape stability generally. This focus on the
desirability of trees was in sharp contrast to the values
associated with land development based on massive
clearing, especially" in western Australia and Queensland
since the 1960s where the wheatbelt and the brigalow
schemes respectively set new world records in the rate
and extent of clearing.
5. Recognition of Erosion and Salination by the Conservation
Lobby
Up to the late 1970s the conserration movement in general
and the ACF in particular, placed little emphasis on the
destruction of agricultural or pastoral land as
environmental problems worthy of political action. When
a poll among national consenration group membership
identified this destruction as a prime problem, the ACF
moved to address this problem in both the federal and
state political arenas. From 1987 the ACF and NFF
cooperated fruitfully within the federal Task Force to
develop and disseminate rural land use guidelines.
New Roles
These recent developments, singely and in combination, create
a new and different frame of reference for both rural leaders
and advisory personnel. The thrust has been for landholders
to be more pro-active, more innovative and more responsible
for giving direction in land management. This reflects a
major change in the attitudes and actions in the rural areas
of all states, and constitutes a "new deal" in environmental
awareness in Australia. Advisors, researchers and
administrators'now find themselves responding to calls for
support from a burgeoning corps of allies on the land, in
their attempt to improve land management, productivity and
stability of the ecosystems on which the community depends.
Rather than acting as the expert, giving advice on a one-toone
basis, the specialists are now invited to offer resources
and support to groups acting in concert. Under the emerging
circumstances, an understanding of effective group extension
methods, which have been neglected since their development by
the Americans and the Dutch in the 1950s, needs special