and planning fencing to control cattle. These are essential prerequisite activities because having high ground cover and plant diversity on site is fundamental to successfully remediating smallscale gullies for the long term( Wilkinson et al., 2022, p. 22; Day & Shepherd, 2019, p. 20).
Seven of the 19 sites had fencing installed to better manage grazing of the eroded area. Four of these sites had temporary electric fencing with a solar-powered energiser. The remaining three had standard fencing of wooden or steel posts and three strands of wire. At the remaining 12 sites landholders managed grazing via their established grazing and rest regimes, some modified to promote recovery of the eroded area such as giving the site a rest every wet season.
The structures and treatments for the catchments were banks and spreaders, contour line rehabilitation( e. g. rip, scarify, fertilise, seed), bunds, stick lines on the contour and some porous check dams.
Direct gully treatments and structures included reshaping, gypsum and fertiliser applications, seeding, rock chutes, porous check dams and weirs. One of the reshaping sites did not involve soil disturbance; rather filling the active gully heads( Figure 6). The collated numbers of structures and treatments implemented across the 19 small-scale sites are displayed in Figure 5.
Reshaping gypsum, fert. seed 1
Reshaping, fertiliser, seed 3
Reshaping, seed 0
Contour line rehab of catchment 7
Rock chute 6
Porous check dams / weirs 10
Bund 2
Bank and spreader – catchment 35
Stick lines
3
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Figure 5. Total erosion control structures and treatments at the small-scale gully sites.
NQ DRY TROPICS 11