That’s a pretty grim landscape
Agricultural lands are typically pretty boring places most of the time. They’re often barren, empty of much in the way of wildlife.
Interestingly, near my work, there are quite a few salt pans. Some of these are natural, others are not.
I’m not an expert on these things. But what I do know is that clearing native vegetation encourages the formation of salt pans.
So this one is quite probably a lot larger than it should be, if it is a natural formation at all.
The large amount of dead trees within and around this salt pan is a good indication that this one has grown in recent years. And it has grown as a result of land clearing.
Deep rooted vegetation keeps the groundwater table at a low level. But with a rise in groundwater following land clearing, the natural salts in the soil layer between the water table and lands surface are forced upwards. Which can have some very negative impacts on whatever is on the lands surface.
What you’re looking at in this image is the remains of a Mallee tree after it encountered a very salty surface of land. The rate of decomposition is quite impressive.
Thankfully, my job is to plant up the land around this little patch of saltiness. So, in a decade or two, this landscape could look quite different.
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What are you planning to plant it up with? Perhaps you should do a photo diary to see how it evolves over the years. It would be wonderful to see new life coming to it.
I’ll certainly be photographing the landscape often. I’m planting the area up with a mix of species native to the region: Mallee, acacias, salt bush etc.
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Hope the revegetation goes well.
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Hey, @mazzle.
Sounds like you're going to have some fun. Taking gardening to another level. :)
Okay, so what about the farmland? Is it still being used? Or did the salt level run them off, too? And when you say plant around, you're saying not into the salt pan itself, but around the borders of it to, presumably, help to move the salt away from it?
It sounds like a great project. I'm just trying to understand all of what's going to happen, and what the land will be used for, if at all, after all of this happens.
Hey, the farm land is still being used. I’ll be planting a fringe of vegetation around the salt pan rather than into the salt pan itself. Nothing grows in hypersaline soils.
Moving salt away is near impossible. All that we can do now is lower the water table as much as possible to bring things closer to their natural levels.
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gosh, that looks like it's a scene from the mad max wasteland! i hope, with work like yours, it will rejuvenate in a decade or two, for sure :O
It does look pretty insane hey? I should have photographed the centre of the basin. It's a vivid yellow colour.
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