Here are a couple of links to an inspiring story I saw on Australian Story
last month. While its not completely devoted to salinity, it is about
drought proofing properties and preventing the problems caused by lack of
water.

http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2005/s1383562.htm (part 1)

http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2005/s1388590.htm (part 2)

Judanne
Tassie


"pete" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks
As some of you know this is a subject quite dear to me because of the
amount of salinity in and around where I live.

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.

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 Most of the
horticultural areas seem to be on land that is unaffected by salt so there
never seems to be a push within the smaller acreage groups or their
growers cooperatives to address the issue ...its left to the larger
properties and their organisations SAFF, NFF etc because (I presume) the
effects are more noticeable and have the most damage potential to our
primary production.

I don't want to learn how to grow salt tolerant species I already know
what plants will grow in some of the worst effected areas... I want to
create soil that will grow anything that my climate, as dry as it is, will
allow me to grow ...

I'm talking about practical people doing practical, positive things which
have yielded results however small a particular favourite of mine is the
"Greening the desert" by Geoff Lawton

http://www.abc.net.au/northcoast/stories/s727970.htm#

There are both flash presentations and real media version links.

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.

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 ?

stay well, stay happy folks

Pete