Taking an innovative approach to managing bio-diversity offsets, mining giant Glencore is combining conservation with cattle grazing on their 4,350 hectare Reedy Valley aggregation in the Upper Hunter.
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This means rather than simply locking up productive farming land, the company is using that land to run a successful commercial cattle breeding enterprise and concentrating their conservation work on areas where farming is less suitable and where its impact is greater, including linking ecological communities.
The ecological communities created on their offset land can then be joined onto the Greater Eastern Ranges Corridor, thereby forming a truly significant and lasting conservation project.
It’s a true balancing act of farming and conservation that could provide a blueprint for the future management of bio-diversity offsets across the mining industry and at the same time assist the agricultural industry in developing the techniques required to achieve a similar on-farm balance.
With an estimated 40,000ha of land in the Hunter Valley now under mining company control, the work being carried out at Reedy Valley is ground breaking as Glencore’s Nigel Charnock says locking up all this land would have an adverse social and economic impact on the community.
“What we want to achieve is the successful management and re-establishment of threatened ecological communities that satisfy our mining consent conditions alongside a productive farming enterprise that supports the local community socially and economically,” he said.
Glencore bought Reedy Valley in 2011 primarily as an offset for its Bulga Coal Operations near Singleton and the first thing the managers did was spent time developing a whole property plan.
This plan identified the farming areas, existing undeveloped lands usually in the steeper hilly locations, and areas that would be best suited for developing ecological communities. The plan has formed the basis for the property’s development and how both conservation and farming can co-exist and assist each other.
Reedy Valley, located west of Bunnan, runs 600 Charolais and Charolais cross breeders managed by Glencore’s Colinta Holdings. In addition to the cattle, their on-farm manager Mat Moore has 30ha of irrigation with two centre pivots and one traveller watering annual and permanent crops and pastures.
Cattle are usually turned off at 12-18 months of age, depending on their weight, and they are sold to feedlots at Caroona and Dubbo.
With concerns being voiced by farmers in the region that once productive lands now owned by mining companies are being left as breeding grounds for feral pests and weeds, Mr Charnock said controlling pests, especially wild dogs and pigs, was a vital part of the day to day management on the aggregation both in the conservation areas and the farming lands.
“We employ contract trappers and undertake regular baiting programs and we also control weeds in the areas set aside for the ecological communities,” he said.
Commenting on the EC’s, Environment & Community Officer Tom Scott said over 1400ha has been set aside for conservation across Reedy Valley to manage existing vegetation and toregenerate the endangered Central Hunter Greybox Ironbark Woodland and the critically endangered Yellow Box-White Box-Blakely’s Red Gum Woodland community.
Sometimes this simply involves excluding livestock from parts of the property and in other cases it will require seed collecting and planting.
“Good conservation and rehabilitation work is a costly process but we consider it part and parcel of running our mining operations,” said Nigel.
“The State Government is currently reviewing the requirements governing bio-diversity offsets, including increasing the ratio of offsets to land disturbance well above existing high ratios. If that ratio is lifted, then mining companies and other developers will be requiring more and more land in the Hunter for biodiversity offsets.
“That poses some serious questions for the entire community as more farmland is sought by mining companies.
“An alternative being proposed by Government is the option for developers to pay into a Fund established and managed by the State Government.
“We see this as a sensible approach as it will provide an opportunity for Government to establish a market for offsets and encourage landholders to manage offsets on their own properties,similar to what we are doing here at Reedy Valley.”
“Whatever the outcome from the current review we want to ensure it’s fair and equitable. It has to be remembered that in the long term we need to maintain a functional balance between biodiversity and agriculture.”