In this issue: Five yearly report card on the state of Australia's Forests; Agro-ecology: ecological diversity by design; AgroForestry and natural resource management - lessons from the Joint Venture Agroforestry Program over the past 15 years; Plantation Forests: the Facts revealed; The Australian Master Treegrower Program - adapting to a changing landscape

This is a ready reckoner to assist farmers in matching stocking rate to the feed availability. It describes a new way of providing a food supply that was not utilised previously without compromising the cereal output.

The National Riparian Lands R&D Program has run for 13 years and this edition of RipRap features the researchers who have been involved, the key findings that have been made and the products that have been developed to apply science to day

In early 1997, the Corporation and its partners released a series of issues papers on riparian management. These were designed for a non-technical audience, to promote awareness of riparian functions. They discussed a range of riparian management issues and techniques for stabilising banks, trapping sediment, improving the ecological condition of streams, and managing stock access. There was a huge response to the issues papers-further evidence of the widespread demand for better information on riparian management. These guidelines are a follow-up to the issues papers. They provide additional information of a technical nature and have been designed to provide professional land managers, advisers, State and Territory agency staff and local government staff, with the information they need to assist non-technical people operating at the farm or catchment level to design and implement best-practice riparian management. The guidelines augment and complement other sources of information on riparian management. They provide sufficient technical information so that readers can understand important principles underlying riparian issues and adapt them, as required, to their particular objectives, climate, farming enterprise or other circumstance. Volume 2 contains the management strategies themselves. Each guideline can be used on its own by practitioners interested in particular objectives, but readers are encouraged to look at all the guidelines to see if additional objectives can be achieved.

Review Objectives 1. To identify the current status of knowledge of the national salinity situation in terms of its environmental impacts on riverine and wetland condition and health and related management issues 2. To identify the scale, scope and management implications of current research work being undertaken on identifying and quantifying the effects of increasing salinity on riverine and wetland health 3. To identify critical R&D gaps and associated management implications of environmental effects

Stream Stabilisation or Rehabilitation is a guide to good practice in stream stabilisation and rehabilitation of north-east Queensland coastal streams. The majority of existing stream management guidelines are not entirely suitable for that purpose. Many focus on approaches to streambank stabilisation that give scant regard to ecological or aesthetic objectives. Others provide little on the principles, procedures and methods essential to good practice. Many of the existing guides were developed for other environments, principally temperate North America and Europe. Until now, virtually nothing has been available for the quite different tropical stream systems, particularly those of north-east Queensland.

This bulletin describes the results of a modelling study of evaporation from farm dams and a 'ready reckoner' in the form of a spreadsheet that: Calculates the cost of installing an evaporation reduction system Calculates how much water is saved from evaporating.

The Wetting Front Detector (WFD) is a new tool to help measure how deeply water has penetrated into the soil after an irrigation event. The WFD also captures and stores a soil water sample, which can be analysed for its salt or nutrient content. The first commercial version of the Wetting Front Detector (WFD), called the FullStop, was released in 2004. The Full Stop WFD is comprised of a funnel, a filter and a float mechanism. The funnel 'captures' some water from the wetting front as it goes past, and pops up an indicator flag at the soil surface. If the soil is dry before irrigation, the wetting front will not penetrate deeply, because the dry soil absorbs much of the infiltrating water. A long irrigation would be needed to activate a detector. However, if the soil is relatively wet before irrigation, the wetting front moves more deeply into the soil. Experiments with sprinkler irrigation have confirmed this.

Many of the research projects commissioned by the National Program for Sustainable Irrigation (NPSI) have adopted innovative approaches to achieve strong connections between the researchers and the rest of the community. Finding ways to include the practical knowledge that comes from the community into research is crucial to achieving a sustainable future. This research bulletin outlines approaches to engaging with communities that have been successfully developed and applied by NPSI projects. The complementary nature of the processes is emphasised.

This hand book has been produced from the results of wetland research projects funded by the Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation (LWRRDC) and Environment Australia, in association with the New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation (DLWC) and Botany, University of New England (UNE). The information contained in this publication has been published by LWRRDC to assist public knowledge and discussion and to help improve the sustainable management of land, water and vegetation. Where technical information has been prepared or contributed by authors external to the Corporation, readers should contact the authors, and conduct their own enquiries before making use of that information.