Regional bio link in Bass Coast Shire

 When we bought our property on the Bass River at Grantville, we soon realised its importance as part of the only remaining riparian forest on the Bass River. Our vegetation also provided the only link between the Grantville Flora  and Fauna Reserve and the Bass. As well as maintaing a vital regional biolink  Once that was firmly established in our minds  we set about ensuring that production on Blue Mountain Creek became not only sustainable but renewable.

Self-renewing topsoil that is biologically active is essential for productive agriculture as well as a healthy  environment. It is the over-riding requirement for the health of plants, animals and people. But unfortunately it's not something that's high on the radar of most farmers.

Appropriate management of soil biology in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and conservation areas is hard to find and is one of the most neglected  natural resource issues in Australia. Most of our grasslands and croplands are nowhere near as healthy as they should be.

They often feature areas of bare ground, sheet and gully erosion, weeds and an almost complete lack of desirable plant species. It's an easy but gullible assumption that removing the weeds and replanting some 'better' species will solve the problems. Decades of experience have demonstrated that this simplistic approach rarely works.

The interactions between animals, plants and soil biota remain out of balance because the essential requirement of soil management has not been addressed. The consequent shortfall in ecosystem services, such as nutrient availability, results in costly (and damaging) supplements being added to the  soils. 

Landscapes are not degraded because they lack desirable species. The reality is that desirable species will not flourish when landscapes are degraded. 

In agriculture, grazing and cropping account for most of the land use.  If we can get our resource managers (and farmers) to recognise that the main focus of natural resource management needs to be to maintain high levels of humic materials to rebuild topsoil, we will see some top results. But it will require radical departures from conventional methods of production.