Environmental water for local wetlands

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s Living Murray Program has recently made available environmental water for distribution into a number of local wetlands.

Forests NSW is overseeing the application of this water, which will significantly improve the health of these sites.

Forests NSW regional fire and operations officer, Larry Carey, based at Deniliquin, said up to 2.75 gigalitres (GL) of The Living Murray environmental water was being delivered to three separate wetlands within the Millewa and Moira State Forests.

“The water will be used primarily as a follow up to sustain existing gains in regeneration generated by previous watering events.

“In some cases, however, it will be the first watering of these wetlands for many years,” he said.

Mr Carey said the water was being combined with additional environmental water from other sources to achieve significant ecological benefits across numerous sites in the region.

Earlier this year Pollack Swamp in the Koondrook State Forest received 1GL of Living Murray water.

This has also recently been supplemented using water from these additional sources.

“Although the volumes of water are small, significant ecological benefits will be gained by the timely delivery of this water,” Mr Carey said.

Additional environmental releases are also planned to be delivered to the Gunbower Wetlands and Gulf Creek in the Barmah Forest in Victoria.

The environmental watering program will not impact on the delivery of water for consumptive use.

The Living Murray is a joint initiative funded by the New South Wales, Victorian, South Australian, Australian Capital Territory and the Commonwealth governments, coordinated by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.