As the health of the river steadily worsens, Richmond Landcare Incorporated is supporting the call for a Richmond River Commissioner.
‘Healing our river systems so we can fish, swim and drink the waters is possible – all we need is catchment scale coordination and funding,’ said Dr Hedy Bryant, Chair of Richmond Landcare Incorporated, the peak body for Landcare Groups on the Richmond River.
‘A healthy river helps our economy through fishing and tourism, provides habitat, and means our farmland soils are not washing out to sea every time it rains. Decades of work by volunteers, using small grants from multiple government agencies has not stopped the Richmond River becoming the most degraded waterway in the region.’
Richmond Landcare Incorporated has joined the loud local call for the state government to establish a Richmond River Commissioner.
‘A Richmond River Commissioner with statutory authority to advocate for river health and fund and coordinate catchment management activities at a landscape scale is critical to heal our river systems,’ said Dr Bryant.
From bad to worse
There have been multiple studies on the condition of coastal river systems on the east coast of NSW that have identified historical land clearing, excessive erosion in the upper catchments, and significant loss of riparian vegetation have significantly impacted river health.
These degraded conditions have led to catastrophic outcomes such as major blackwater events after flooding, when hundreds of thousands of fish and crustaceans perish from lack of oxygen in the water.
‘We know that revegetating creeks and riverbanks and bringing back wetlands in the lower catchment will slow runoff from surrounding land and prevent debris and soil from entering the river,’ Dr Bryant explained.
‘Landcare volunteers and landholders have been doing this work for decades, using small grants from various government agencies, but we are not seeing the shift in river health that we need to see.’
Management of the river system is even more difficult because multiple agencies are responsible for different aspects of waterway management for the same river, including the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW), local councils, Rous County Council and North Coast Local Land Services.
This has contributed to fragmentation of waterway management actions across the catchment.
Richmond Landcare Incorporated is urging the state government to establish a Richmond River Commissioner with the statutory authority to advocate for river health and to fund and coordinate the catchment management activities at a landscape scale required to heal our river.
‘We can’t wait any longer, we as a community want to see the changes required to restore the health of this beautiful catchment,’ said Dr Bryant.
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