We're now working to expand our focus to the whole of the upper Murrumbidgee River from Tantangara Dam to Burrinjuck Dam, a section which is about 380km long.
Restoring a river must require working with so many different stakeholders. How do you stay across everything and keep everyone engaged?
Most people who buy a property connected to the Murrumbidgee do so because they care about the river; there’s a real sense of shared appreciation for it in this community that’s quite special. So, I think that inherent connection is the path through which we engage people with working towards a healthier and more resilient river system.
At the end of the day, the upper Murrumbidgee is one of Canberra's water supplies. So, in a very utilitarian sense, ensuring its waters remain clean into the future is in the interests of hundreds of thousands of people.
The UMDR, supported by Bush Heritage, works with landholders all along the upper Murrumbidgee to encourage actions that will benefit river health like fencing out stock, preventing disturbance from roads, controlling weeds, fixing erosion along banks and in tributary gullies, replanting native vegetation and improving instream habitat.
The challenge is getting all our projects to link up. It’s such a huge ecosystem with such long boundaries, so improving connectivity is very complex.
Why is connectivity so important for river health?