Reduced River flows causing environmental degradation Lachlan River Hay New South Wales Australia
The Lachlan River rises south west of Goulburn and flows north-west, west, south-west to it's junction with the Murrumbidgee River, a distance of approximately 1500 kms. The Lachlan River below Booligal near Hay receives inadequate environmental water allocation and as a consequence the degradation of the riverine environment is obvious. River Red Gum and Black Box Gum forests, the existing native remanent vegetation along the river and across the flood plains are dying, due to lack of moisture. It is not just about rainfall. These forests need natural periodic flooding to survive and the reduced environmental flows in the river are causing trees to slowly die off. Because of the reduced flow patterns in the Lachlan River, Red gum saplings and Cumbungi ( a tall marsh plant) have an ideal environment to establish and grow. This flow pattern creates a wetting and drying of the river bed, silt builds up and the river becomes shallower. The extra plant life growing in and on the edge of the river narrows the river bank. Drought and reduced water allocation has reduced natural river flushing and the river looks in poor health.
Size: 3532px × 5402px
Photo credit: © Philip Quirk / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: allocation, australia, bank, brown, calm, colour, cumbungi, degradation, disaster, disasters, drought, dry, environment, environmental, evaporation, exposed, flo, flow, forest, green, gum, horizontals, isolated, landscape, light, nature, outdoors, peaceful, red, reduced, reflections, river, roots, saplings, summer, sunrise, survival, system, tranquil, tree, trees, water
