Many landholders are aware they have soil erosion on their properties, but may not know what they can do about it.

A new publication describes what 15 North Coast landholders have done to repair different types of soil erosion on their own properties.

The landholders received technical advice to help them develop effective strategies for their specific sites, and funding to support their on ground works from NSW Department of Primary Industries’ Soil Erosion Solutions project.

Following on from the previous booklet, Soil Erosion Solutions, containing case studies published in 2006, the new one describes a wider range of projects.

It explains how the landholders have successfully worked to manage gully erosion of different severities, rehabilitate highly degraded land, reduce soil loss from macadamia orchard floors, establish best practice models for intensive horticulture on steep land, and reduce the risk of mass movement.

Each site and situation is unique, and landholders all have different goals and resources available to them, so each project uses different techniques and approaches to manage erosion.

Sohan Atwal’s steep coastal farm at Korora was being converted from bananas to blueberries.

The new mounds for blueberry rows ran downslope, so there was a risk of erosion down the interrows.

An intermittent watercourse with subsurface flow runs through the centre of the farm.

This made traffic turning areas boggy for much of the year, and the disturbed ground prone to further erosion.

A $9300 grant from the project provided Mr Atwal with gabion rock, gravel, crusher dust (very fine basalt gravel), pipes, excavator hire, geofabric sandbags, grass seed, which he matched in kind with tractor work and other labour.

"It achieved everything I wanted," Mr Atwal said.

"The water does not flow down the gully anymore, so the erosion has stopped, the drainage is improved so the tractor no longer gets bogged."

Soil Erosion Solutions was a joint project between NSW DPI and Northern Rivers CMA running from 2005 to 2008.

Benefits to Mr Atwal’s blueberry farm

• The orchard has become a model for best practice in soil and water management
• Banks and groundcover mean less soil is eroding from the orchard
• The improved sediment pond means more sediment is being trapped on the farm.
• Less sediment and nutrients are being carried into a coastal stream
• The subsurface drainage has stabilised important turning areas, making orchard operations easier
• The cross banks to break up long slopes have also improved watering efficiency

Read more of Mr Atwal’s story at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/254684/korora.pdf

Contact Lyn Andersen, Wollongbar, (02) 6626 1215, lyn.andersen@dpi.nsw.gov.au for a free copy of this publication or visit www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/resources/soils/erosion/info-sheet