Hi Landcarers

The Bureau of Meteorology released their Climate and Water Outlook for April to June 2017 last week. Have you had time to check it out?

If not, here’s how things are looking. The BOM have moved into El Nino watch which means that they believe that looking at the modelling and previous occurrences, they believe that there is a likelihood that we will head into El Nino conditions during winter.

There is also a forecast for below-average rainfall after some initial wet conditions, with warmer than average conditions, but they do caution that models have lower accuracy at this time of the year for this forecasting.

El Niño, what? I hear some of you saying. Well, with Spanish not being my first language and having not looked into its meaning any further than what it might mean as out outlook, I have discovered that it means ‘the little boy’, yep!

In terms of what it means for us over winter, the El Niño phase will mean that we are more likely to have a drier than average winter-spring.

Just a statistical note that the BOM have mentioned, over the past two decades the autumn season rainfall has declined across much of southern Australia. Of the past 26 years, we have seen a below-average rainfall across southeaster Australia.

They say that the long-term increasing trend in global air and ocean temperatures, as well as the El Niño – Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) are influencing the Australian climate patterns.

To manage our natural environment responsibly, governments, industry and the community need comprehensive, trusted and timely environmental information. It is very important to have reliable information to make sound decisions, individually and collectively, about environmental change and the issues affecting our environment.

Activities including monitoring our atmosphere, observing our environment, developing products, services and information systems, cross-agency coordination activities, to improve Australia’s environmental information base.

The BOM have the National Environmental Information Infrastructure, a whole-of-government initiative to improve discovery, access and re-use of environmental information; and leading a programme of bioregional assessments to analyse potential impacts of coal seam gas and large coal mining developments on water resources.

They also have information relevant to agriculture specifically and include information on climate and past weather records, water levels, aviation, marine and ocean, UV and sun protection and much more.

Speaking of weather, the conditions are looking good for the next National Parks Association (NPA) walk on Wednesday, 12 April. The group, led by Bob Bokeyar, are heading to Back Yamma State Forest. If you are interested in attending, please contact walk leader, Bob on 0419 625 031.

On a totally different subject, but still with relevance to Landcare. Some of you may have seen a headline in the news this week about Bob Hawke and the new beer that he has launched Hawke’s Larger. Mr Hawke has agreed to lend his name to the beer venture on the condition that a percentage of beer sales profit being fed into rural programs.

Mr Hawke has said that he did not wish to make any profits personally and that his share would be going to Landcare. Some of you may find this a little left field. When Bob Hawke was Prime Minister, he did commence the movement of Landcare.

Some may say that Landcare has run on the smell of an oily rag, but will it now be run on the smell of and empty beer can? Interesting times!

For further information, follow the links on our website blog at centralwestlachlanlandcare.org or on facebook or ring 02 6862 4914. Until next week, happy Landcaring!