"pete" wrote in message

Hi Folks

Hi Pete. Nice to see you again.

I've stated before that I don't believe salinity is THE problem but
rather A symptom of poor soil structure, and I'm increasingly frustrated
when I look for info on how salinity is being managed or addressed.

Pete I've mentioned these farms here befo
http://www.abc.net.au/landline/stories/s100812.htm

I know that one of the major problems at least one of these farms had was
salinity. somewhere I have a book on what was on those farms but I can't
lay my hands on it at the moment. It is fascinating reading and I can
strongly recommend it.


Most if not all the sources I can find on the net are government
sponsored surveys which seem intent on telling me how bad salinity is
and why it's such a problem and how they will continue to develop models
to ascertain the extent of salinity and how to recognise it ...etc etc
etc ....... all this is necessary I'm sure for the "experts" to gain an
understanding of the so called problem and to help others understand its
devastating effects, and I have no doubt that there are many many people
receiving government grants to fund these surveys and refine their
models and salt mapping diagrams.

Almost all of the info is negative and depressing and virtually states
that we are doomed to be swallowed up by mountains of salt unless we do
something ... the trouble is I can't actually find anyone who IS doing
anything other than devising yet another model or salt map for continued
monitoring ...of course all at great expense in the form of grant
money which ultimately gets passed onto the public in the form of levies
and surcharges.

My question is this .... does anyone know of any information on the net
which shows positive results from methods which can be applied by the
everyday person ?.

Most of the farming resources I read understandably deal with enabling
the farmer to still get a return from salt affected land whilst using
techniques to reduce high water tables and salt content, but I think thy
never actually address the real issue of soil structure

I'm not sure what you mean by "soil structure". I do know that a lot of the
salinity info I've seen relating to farm salinity is about increasing humus
content (wiht the recognition that this is very difficult but that
increasing soil biota is very possible and also very successful) and
increasing soil coverage (by vegetation muclching etc and very strong
protection against any degradtion of the souil by both animal activity and
human activity.


This is the sort of info I'm looking for, I'm already getting some
varied success from trying different things ...as some of you know from
my postings here .... but I'm always looking for others sources of info
... no more reports, studies or models from well intentioned government
sponsored surveys ... I feel like I've read all of em.

Do you remember me posting this site befo
http://www.rosneath.com.au/ipc6/ch02/withers/index.html

I think it fits your criteria of soil creation and effective coping with
appalling non productive soil very well and is very inspiring. You may not
agree :-))

I wonder if anyone would be interested if I put together a simple web
page wiv piccies of my modest efforts in the hopes of helping others ?

I'd be very interested.

Fran