A busy and rewarding year

The last 12 months has been somewhat of a whirlwind for our fledgling business. We’ve had the opportunity to work on fascinating projects, with terrific organisations, and met a bunch of knowledgeable and passionate people.

We’re on a steep learning curve but it’s been most enjoyable so far!

Since we started, on the 1st July 2013, we’ve been involved in a range of NRM projects. Here is a snapshot …

• Water Quality Improvement Planning (WQIP) in Queensland, with both the Burnett-Mary Regional Group and Terrain NRM – investigating how to best prioritise investments for improving water quality on the Great Barrier Reef. Both projects have enabled us to collaborate with TropWATER to integrate ecological, biophysical and economic information into water quality planning.
• Protecting key assets in the Corner Inlet Ramsar site, with the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority – INFFER assessments looking at cost-effective measures to protect migratory and resident shorebirds, and saltmarsh and mangrove ecosystems.
• Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, with 7 Victorian CMAs (led by the Corangamite CMA) – partnering with Spatial Vision we have developed and applied a new framework to assess the vulnerability to climate change of key environmental assets across Victoria.
• Threatened Species Prioritisation in Alberta & Saskatchewan, with the Land Stewardship Centre (LSC) of Canada, using INFFER to explore measures for protecting the Greater Sage Grouse. Also with the LSC we have assisted with  a project investigating water quality prioritisation for the Bow River in Alberta.
• Application of INFFER to project development for the Red-Gum Plains Grassy Woodlands and Grasslands, and Alpine Peatland ecosystems, with the West Gippsland CMA – partnering with RMCG to apply INFFER to investment prioritisation in a large-scale biodiversity conservation project funded by the Australian Government.
• Development of a new approach to waterway prioritisation to support the development of Victorian Waterway Management Strategies – with both the West Gippsland and North Central CMAs, and the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI).
• Conducted INFFER training for Queensland NRM regional groups and local government bodies as part of the NERP (National Environmental Research Program) Tools for Natural Resource Management and Monitoring Workshop – in partnership with CEED (Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions).
• Climate Change planning support with the Burnett-Mary Regional Group in QLD – assessing climate change impacts and vulnerability to biodiversity assets.
• Bushfire management decision making – with the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and DEPI, using a modified application of INFFER to assist land and fire managers explore options for asset protection in fire prone landscapes around Melbourne.
• Threatened Woodland Bird priority setting – with the Connecting Country project. This project used a rich dataset of bird observations from Birdlife Australia to determine cost-effective actions to conserve a suite of threatened woodland birds across the Mount Alexander Shire in central Victoria

We have also welcomed Michelle Dickson and Mary Park to the Natural Decisions team, and they have made significant contributions to expanding our skills and knowledge across NRM and business management respectively.

We’d like to sincerely thank our partners for the trust and support they have shown over the past year, and look forward to future exciting opportunities.

Bush Stone-curlew in Cairns … a collateral benefit of visits to North Queensland!