Gnads wrote on Mar 2
nd, 2017 at 8:21am:
Unsub .... try looking into the subject of turning good fertile farmland into salt affected wasteland.
We have done this to many areas with irrigation schemes e.g. the Murrumbidgee Irrigation scheme ....
in the salad bowl of QLD ... the Lockyer Valley
and many other areas.
In the Lockyer, land clearing, especially on surrounding high country alters the drainage of water run off which in turn raises the water table, pushing minerals especially salt to the surface.
In the Murrumbidgee case ...... flood irrigation in more marginal areas raises the water table for the same result.
Tipping water on the land doesn't always turn it into a fertile oasis. There are many pros & cons to deal with.
IMHO your suggestions regarding the Lake Ayre basin would be a monumental & fruitless(excuse the pun) exercise.
Yes, I was aware that dumping a heap of irrigation onto certain land areas (cleared of native trees) does bring about an unfavourable change of fertility in the soils. Hence the reason why I brought up the idea of planting salt tolerant plants to combat the salinity of the soil.
Some farmers have brought to the attention of the use of certain hardwood hybrid trees, developed by certain flora biology centres (or whatever they call them). They have said that after 10 years of planting numerous trees adjacent to the creeks on their land that the region has gone from swampy, infertile unusable soil into good fertile farmland that can be used for planting crops that are not salt tolerant. But that was an article I read a few years back, and doubt that it still exists.
Yes, the idea of planting salt grow trees around Lake Ayre would be an infuriating and pointless exercise in the short term. Perhaps I was just fantasizing long-term concept of my grandchildren growing up in a society where the farmers are not in the news committing suicide over a lack of rain and fertile soils. Or having the dreaded idea that Australians are going to have to import most of our food and be at the mercy of overseas societies' generosity about how much and what we eat.
I realise that I'm 38 and concerning myself with things that are out of my control for much of my thoughts. But I feel that we need to be a bit more pragmatic about how we look after primary industries in the future. Or my retirement won't exist.
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