Improved water quality in Eprapah Creek and continued community involvement in waterways programs are good news stories from the Redlands Waterways Recovery Report, released this week.
Redland City Mayor Karen Williams said that while the report acknowledged that there was still work to be done, there were some promising results about local remediation works.
“The Redlands Waterways Recovery Report looks at not only the science, but also the remediation efforts undertaken to enhance and improve local waterway health,” Cr Williams said.
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“This year’s success story was Eprapah Creek Catchment, which despite lower flow saw an improvement in its overall condition.
“Eprapah Creek is a strategic focus of our waterways extension program, so it’s great to see community efforts paying off.
“As our City is the end of the line for many of the region’s waterways, our local estuaries carry the outflow from those catchments, but we never let this be an excuse in our own efforts to improve local waters.
“In 2014-15 the overall condition of eight catchments remained steady and a new location was included in testing (Torquay catchment at Redland Bay).
“Five of the 15 waterway catchments monitored declined this year, with this partly attributed to lower water flow concentrating nutrient and sediment levels.
“This shows there’s still room for improvement, but the work being done by the many hundreds of volunteers, dedicated landowners, our environmental team and other agencies is providing some success stories.”
Some key results from the 2015 report include:
• More than 24,500 riparian plants planted with the community help to extend waterways corridors
• Officers visited more than 1000 new properties in key areas to educate about waterways health
• Officers controlled declared weeds at 45 sites across Redlands
• More than 100 cubic metres of litter were removed from local waterways
• A recreational waters monitoring program commenced at twelve local beaches.
• The Waterways Extension Program now covers 839 hectares on 79 private properties in Hilliards and Eprapah catchments.
Redlands Environmental Spokesperson Cr Lance Hewlett said the take-home message from the report is that community action can make a difference.
“Our key message is that our waterways and Moreton Bay provide many community benefits and to protect them we have to keep sediment, litter and nutrients out of our creeks and waterways, “Cr Hewlett said.
“All residents can play a role by helping to monitor our creeks, or joining a bushcare group and plant trees along the creeks to prevent erosion and improve wildlife habitat.
“For those who don’t have time to volunteer it’s about following common sense rules- contain horse and cow manure in manure compounds, revegetate the edges of farm dams to prevent erosion, pick up after your dog and dispose of it in the bins provided and keep litter out of stormwater drains.
“We all value our waterways so it is up to all of us to protect them.”
The 2015 report, and previous years’ reports, can be viewed on Council website at www.redland.qld.gov.au/EnvironmentWaste/Waterways/
