Biodiversity is and always will be an important component in any pastoral business. A healthy and ecologically balanced ecosystem provides the means for productivity, profitability. Now in the forefront of the global agenda; the need for biodiversity surveys to be undertaken is dramatically increasing.
A biodiversity survey was conducted on Glenflorrie Station as part of Rangelands NRM’s ‘Fast tracking WA and NT to align with nutritional feed base mapping technology advancements at a national level’ supported by the Northern Hub and SW WA Hub in a cross-hub collaboration and funded by the Future Drought Fund. It was a pilot survey to determine if the method used would be practical for pastoral stations in Western Australia and consequently across the nation.
About the project
The ‘Fast tracking WA and NT to align with nutritional feed base mapping technology advancements at a national level’ project investigated satellite assisted forage budget technology, pasture species identification, key species in land systems identification and piloted two biodiversity surveys.
Rangelands NRM worked in collaboration with several experts to ensure knowledge exchange – both from industry to pastoralists and pastoralists to industry.
Ten stations were given the opportunity to be upskilled in species identification and key species identification in land systems on their stations, to better understand the nutritional value of the forage.