148 gigalitres of water has been promised to South Australia by the New South Wales Government. In addition the Federal Government has purchased 20 gigalitres for environmental flows. The water will be used to help the ailing lower lakes and delays the decision to build a weir at Wellington. The Institute’s Mike Young has said that the inflow of water should help to prevent the further acidification of the lakes until 2011. The water is expected to reach the lower lakes by March.
If you want to find out more about the ecology and natural water regime of the lower lakes listen to Dr Kane Aldridge’s seminar, “What is the future for the Lower Lakes?” Kane’s seminar also discusses how the lakes may be managed in the future to provide a resilient ecosystem that is able to cope with variability in flow and climatic conditions. Download the podcast here.
Sorry, only managed to bear a few seconds of the presentation. In this day and age presentation must be concise and brief.
As I did not have time to go through the presentation is it about the pre barrage natural environment or the post barrage artificial environment? The latter is now reffered in many reports as the natural environment probably because it is what we have experienced over our lifetimes and there are few left who can remember and describe the pre barrage natural environment in our terms.
Ian Rowan, Goolwa
The seminar covers what is known about the ecology and water regimes of the Lower Lakes before the barrages were installed as well as discussing the effects of these structures on this system. This seminar is also available as a slidecast, accesible here. The slidecast provides the powerpoint presentation that accompanied Kane’s presentation and allows the viewer to access specific parts of the presentation.