News and Events

Landcare has commenced some planning for the new year with a meeting held last week for a few of us to get together and think about some directions for Central West Lachlan Landcare and the Environmental Hub. Thanks to Kath from the Lachlan CMA for her involvement – and it was also great to have Bill Archer our Vice President in attendance.

A reminder should go to all members as well that we are always on the lookout for ideas for projects and for ways to educate people about the environment. If you have a good idea then all you need to do is share it with us by calling 02 6862 4914.

We don’t doubt that there are many great ideas out there – so please let us know if there is something you would like the committee to pursue. Likewise if you have any concerns you would like raised at the local, regional or even state level about Landcare, let us know. As a committee we do need to be representative of you, our members.

At the Federal level of Landcare and natural resource management, the New Year has brought new buckets of funding for natural resource management at a high level through the Clean Energy Futures Fund, and most inevitably focused on climate change and carbon farming.

Many of these buckets of money are for large-scale projects, but components of them will filter down in areas such as carbon sequestration – or storage – at the farm level.

The farmers amongst you will be interested to know that tax wise, there are also other changes coming such as the conservation tillage refundable tax offset (RTO) of 15% of the cost of the purchase of an eligible no till seeder.

For more information you really do need to contact your accountant or the ATO but the information I have seen describes an eligible no till seeder as any of the following  -

• Tine machines fitted with minimum tillage points designed to achieve minimum soil disturbance and less than full cut-out.
• Minimum tillage points designed to achieve minimum soil disturbance and less than full cut-out include narrow points, knife points or inverted 'T' points.
• Disk openers with a single, double or triple disc arrangement.
• Disc/tine or disc/blade hybrid machine.

This could be worth investigating if you are in the market for some new gear, and as we know with machinery every little bit does help.

The grapevine also relates that the Community Action Grants (CAGs) – for small projects of up to $20,000 will be opening earlier this year – maybe March, as opposed to the usual August.

Have a think and see if there is anything that you or your group might be able to apply for – but be aware that it will probably need to be a project that can be completed within twelve months – as we are moving from a Caring for our Country cycle of funding to one under the Clean Energy Fund.

In the past we have had local projects through CAGs looking at projects ranging from fencing and tree planting to training courses and grazing management systems.

I have also seen projects approved for earthworks – which is very rare these days in funded projects.

So, if you have something that you have wanted to do for some time, a CAG might be just the funding bucket for you.

Until next week, Happy Landcaring.