NGT awarded a grant to finalise the establishment of a Wetland Condition Assessment Method in the South East of SA
Late last week I was notified that NGT has been successful in a grant application previously submitted to the Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources in SA. The grant will see NGT deliver the final field verification and testing stage of a Wetland Condition Assessment Tool (also known as WetCAT for short) for use in the South East NRM region. Given the broad interest among wetland managers in measuring the condition of wetlands through time (and the inherent difficulty in defining “condition” given the dynamic nature of wetlands), we are hopeful that the method might also be picked up and adapted for use in other regions in the future.
NGT has teamed up with two Adelaide based non-government partners to deliver the grant proposal, the Conservation Council of SA and the Nature Conservation Society of SA. These organisations are also involved in condition assessment research and monitoring in SA and will play a key role in an expert review process for the project, ensuring that “the WetCAT” receives sufficient scrutiny prior to the method being finalised.
The project will occur over the next 6 months, starting in August.