IMPROVED pastures and decreased topsoil runoff have been achieved in the early stages of a project to stop erosion on the Atherton Tablelands.
Five zuni bowls were constructed on grazier Owen Rankine's Lake Eacham property 10 months ago and he said despite having a below average wet season, he had seen improvements to his land.
Mr Rankine said the bowls had settled into the landscape and grass had started growing on the land below, that was previously bare.
"We haven't had a big wet season but the amount of flow through the bowls has been enough to see how they work and to get them established, with silt between the rocks and grass on the land below them,'' Mr Rankine said.
"Next year you'll barely see they are there and the water should flow through nicely."
Mr Rankine said small-scale erosion had long been an issue on his family's beef cattle property.
"Every wet season it had been getting a bit worse, and more topsoil was washed away,'' he said.
"If we can repair our gullies, and other farmers can do the same thing, it's another step to improving our pastures and stopping run-off to the reef."
Mr Rankine's property was a demonstration site for the Terrain NRM project, who brought RegenAG's North American watershed specialist Craig Sponholtz to the region for the project.
Zuni bowls are seen as a small-scale, cost-effective way for landholders to stop erosion advancing.
They involve lining gully heads where there are abrupt vertical drops with rocks, to stop water from further disturbing soil.
Mr Sponholtz designed the bowls on Mr Rankine's farm, trained local earthmovers and led workshops with farmers interested in the project.
Terrain NRM's Jen Mackenzie said the Johnstone River catchment had the Far North's highest sediment reduction target as part of the Australian and Queensland Government's Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan.
"This project is all about reducing sediment losses to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon while helping graziers to help themselves by addressing erosion problems and improving their pastures and livelihoods,'' Ms Mackenzie said.
The work is part of Terrain NRM's Upper Johnstone Integrated Project, funded through the Queensland Government's Natural Resources Investment Program and focused on erosion hotspots in the Tablelands-Innisfail region.
