REHYDRATING land in the Liverpool Plains was the topic of conversation at a recent community event.
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Hosted by Accoutable Agriculture Australia, Upper Mooki Landcare, Tamworth Regional Landcare Association and the Foundation of Rural and Regional Renewal, the 'Landscape Rehydration in Practice' event drew a group of passionate landholders together to learn more about their own backyards.
Accountable Agriculture Australia's Craig Carter said the day equipped community members with tools and resources to reintegrate moisture back into their soil.
"People have worked out their water cycle is not functioning in their farms and their properties and their landscape," Mr Carter said.
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"This was about how to hold water in your landscape."
Before settlement the soil in the Liverpool Plains region was always "quite wet", but due to drainage and different management styles Mr Carter said dehydration had occurred.
Around 30 people attended the event to learn how they could reverse the dehydration process.
Mr Carter said landholders were told to try and keep their landscapes covered by a diverse array of plants at all times and to always have something growing.
"You've got to have a diverse pasture with different root structures because root structures are what allow the water to go in and infiltrate the soil," he said.
"There's an old paradigm that if you've got something growing it's using up all your water but in actual fact what you'll find is the water is penetrating your landscape, going in and soaking in."
While it sounds like a simple task, Mr Carter said the most important thing was to check in with local environmental bodies to make sure you're allowed to be planting certain things.
"When you talk about water courses and gullies you run into some regulatory stuff."
But the benefits of rehydration far outweigh the burden of double checking your process.
Mr Carter said moisture in the soil had a positive social, ecological and environmental impact.
"By retaining as much water as we can it's a drought mitigation process," he said.
"We're either in a drought preparing for it, or recovering from it.
"And the more preparation you can do for a drought the longer you'll be delayed going into it and the sooner you'll come out of it."
By planting a diverse range of groundcover, a range of insects, birds and animals are also likely to flock to the area.
"That all adds to a healthy landscape, a healthy landscape means that you're going to have quality food and fibre to work towards a healthy community."
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