Putting new life back into a 'dying' lake

Western Australia's biggest water bird breeding ground is now the centre of the State's most intensive water and environment study involving massive tree plantings. Lake Toolibin, 40 kilometres east of Narrogin, is a mecca for duck shooters who revel in the lake's abundance of water bird, especially duck. Bird watchers have identified 41 species of water bird on the lake with 24 of these species recorded as using the lake for a breeding ground, but over the past nine years some rare species have left the lake due to increased salt levels in the lake's fresh water. Salt encroachment from farmers' paddocks and waterlogging have killed many of the trees around the lake. In 1977, the Field and Games Society at Narrogin was concerned at the deteriorating visual aspect of the lake and its surrounds would cause a drop of bird life numbers. The Departments of Fisheries and Fauna and Wildlife and Forestry (now the Department of Conservation and Land Management) were asked by the society to start of trial study on the area. Through this the Wickepin Soil Conservation Committee was formed. Between 1977 and 1984 tests on the lake were carried out and farmers were asked to fence off salt-affected areas. In 1984 Greening Australia joined the project, with a $1000 donation and the hard working attitude of their representative, Terri Smith commenced intensive tree planting. This article contains an image by Gerald Moscarda of Claudia Hadlow, a technical assistant with the Department of Agriculture at Narrogin with Terri Smith, a Treeperson with Greening Australia at Lake Toolibin. PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to provide a public view of this newspaper article as the copyright is held by the publisher of The Countryman. If you would like to obtain a copy of this newspaper article for research purposes, please ‘request a copy'. This article is part of the WISALTS (Whittington Interceptor Sustainable Agriculture Land Treatment Society Incorporated) Collection