2016-17 Manning Great Lakes

Land Management Grants Program

Guidelines for Applicants

Program Information
Funding available in 2016/17 / Total funding available is$120,823
  • $78,963National Landcare Program - Australian Government
  • $41,860 Catchment Action NSW
Individual grants are available to a maximum of $50,000
Applications open / 1st August 2016
Closing date for applications / 16thSeptember 2016
Final date for completion of approved projects / 31stMay 2017
Eligibility /
  • Landholders and/or land managers currently engaged with the Hunter LLS through beef, poultryor dairy industry programs in the Manning, Karuah and Great Lakes catchment areas.
  • Landholders and/or land managers who have riparian areas in the Karuah and Manning Rivers, and Myall and Wallis Lakestributaries (see Page 4)

Eligible activities / See Page 4
Minimum outputs to be delivered by the Funding Program / 8 ha - Improve the condition and connectivity of riparian vegetation, in the Karuah and Manning Rivers, and Myall and Wallis Lakes tributaries.
912 ha of land on which improved management practices have been implemented. (Beef, Dairy and Poultry)
Priority Areas /
  • Manning,Karuah and Great Lakescatchments- beef and dairy grazing and riparianlands.
  • Karuah catchment - poultry production lands.

Lodging applications / Electronically:
or
Written: Manning Great Lakes Land Management Program
Hunter Local Land Services
PO Box 440
Taree, NSW, 2430
Conditions of Funding / Standard LLS Grant funding terms and conditions apply (see Page 8)
LLS on-ground works minimum standards apply (see Page 10)
Where to get assistance? / Website:
Phone: 02 65518994
Email: or
Office: Hunter Local Land Services, 98 Victoria Street, Taree NSW 2430.
Note: Requests for assistance from Hunter LLS staff must be received by 2nd September to guarantee assistance with your funding application.

About Hunter LLS

The Hunter Local Land Services (LLS) region covers the following Local Government Areas: Upper Hunter, Muswellbrook, Singleton, Cessnock, Maitland, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle, Port Stephens, Dungog and MidCoast.

The Hunter LLS Local Strategic Plan 2016-2021 prioritises and directs Hunter LLS customer services, partnerships and investment across the region.

It sets the following goals:

  1. Communities – Resilient, self-reliant and prepared local communities
  2. Industries – Biosecure, profitable, productive and sustainable
  3. Natural Environments – Healthy, diverse, connected natural environments
  4. Our Organisation - Innovative, commercially focused and collaborative people delivering best practice business management and reducing red tape.

The plan identifies priorities and strategies for addressing these goals. Those relevant to this grants program are identified in the next section.

The Hunter LLS approach to delivering on this plan involves local people, delivering high quality, integrated services for healthy productive landscapes.

We will work with landholders and land managers to develop measures of productivity, profitability and sustainability, to help improve primary production within healthy landscapes and assist communities in the region to be profitable and sustainable into the future.

About the Program

The Manning Great Lakes Land Management Programis a component of the Manning Great Lakes District Service Delivery Plan, which covers the MidCoast Local Government Area.Thisplan details the priorities, programs and projects to be delivered in the Manning Great Lakes District for the 2016/17 financial year.

Objectives

The objectives of Manning Great Lakes Land Management Program are to:

  • Build landholder capacity to undertake sustainable grazing, land and riparian management practice change.
  • Support and increase adoption of sustainable grazing and land management practices by beef, dairy and poultryindustries.
  • Strengthen local industry partnerships and networks to facilitate adoption and innovation in sustainable grazing practices.
  • Develop and deliver extension products and services tailored to local client needs for improved triple bottom line outcomes at a whole-farm scale.

This program deliverson the following Hunter Local Strategic Plan regional priorities:

  • Encouraging and promoting sustainable agricultural practices, increasing the productivity of primary production, and identifying areas of highly productive agricultural land across the region.
  • Managing land to deal with the impacts of soil degradation – almost all soils in the region are at high risk of some form of soil degradation, and some high value soils are at risk of irreversibly losing soil health and function.
  • Improving the water quality and condition of priority rivers, estuaries and nationally and internationally important wetlands such as the Myall Lakes and Hunter estuary wetland Ramsar sites.
  • Building the capacity of the community to engage in improving primary production and natural resource management and participate in decision making.
  • Being responsive and accountable to a diverse range of customers, investors and stakeholders, including maintaining highly skilled and capable staff that are responsive to customers’ needs.
  • Ensuring investment decision-making is transparent and objective.

This program also delivers on the following Hunter Local Strategic Plan strategy and outcome:

Strategy 2: Deliver Integrated Services

Outcome 2:By 2021, integrated services have helped primary producers and land managers in priority industries or landscapes implement practices for economic, social and environmental outcomes.

Investors

Hunter LLS is delivering National Landcare Programme (NLP) funding on behalf of the Australian Government. The NLP priorities that this program will deliver include:

  1. Maintain and improve ecosystem services through sustainable management of local and regional landscapes.
  2. Increase the numbers of farmers and fishers adopting practices that improve the quality of the natural resource base, and the area of land over which those practices are applied.
  3. Increase engagement and participation of the community, including landcare, farmers and indigenous people in sustainable natural resource management.
  4. Increase restoration and rehabilitation of the natural environment, including protecting and conserving nationally and internationally significant species, ecosystems, ecological communities, places and values.

Hunter LLS is also delivering Catchment Action NSW funding on behalf of the NSW Government. The Catchment Action NSW priorities this program will deliver include:

  • Improve the condition and connectivity of riparian vegetation, in the Karuah and Manning Rivers, and Myall and Wallis Lakes tributaries.

Eligibility

General

Eligibility of all applications is subject to:

  • The project being located in the identified priority area
  • The applicants completing works for any previously funded projects.
  • The proposed works must be able to be completed by 31st May 2017
  • LLS minimum standards for on-ground works being met
  • The proposed activities must abide by NSW State and Australian Commonwealth laws e.g. Native Vegetation Act 2003, Work Health and Safety Act 2011
  • All current Hunter LLS financial obligations are paid.

Specific

  1. Riparian Management

All landholders and/or land managers in the Karuah and Manning Rivers (catchments), and Myall and Wallis Lakes tributaries are eligible where they are improving/enhancing riparian native vegetation through stock exclusion, weeding, regeneration or revegetation activities.

  1. Improved Management Practices

Eligibility of applications for adoption of improved management practices is also subject to the following, by industry:

Sustainable Beef:

Landholders and/or land managers are currently engaged with the Hunter LLS through grazing industry groupsor other Hunter LLS training, extension or advisory programs in the Manning, Karuahand Great Lakes catchments.

Sustainable Poultry:

Producers are currently engaged with the Hunter LLS and Great Lakes Council throughpoultry industry groups and the Karuah CatchmentPlan.

Sustainable Dairy:

Landholders and/or land managers are currently engaged with the Hunter LLS through Dairy NSW and the Mid North Coast Dairy Advancement Group programs such as Pastures for Profit (P4P), Mid North Coast Dairy Discussion Group, Focus Farm, and Turning Milk into Money (TMIM) in the Manning, Karuah and Great Lakes catchments.

Priority Areas

  • Manning, Karuah and Great Lakes catchments - beef and dairy grazing and riparian lands.
  • Karuah catchment - poultry productionand riparian lands.

Types of Activities

The types of activities that can be funded under this Program include (but are not limited to):

  • Changes to grazing practices, including sustainable* grazing practices that improve groundcover, perenniality, composition, herbage mass retention and regenerative rest;
  • Land management practices that improve soil retention, health, biota, infiltration, structure, organic matter and plant root depth;
  • Managing stock impacts on sensitive areas through strategic* grazing practices and/or stock exclusion for revegetation, regeneration, nutrient management or erosion control;
  • Fencing and alternate stock water supply infrastructure to enable sustainable or strategic grazing and protection of sensitive areas;
  • Regeneration or planting of native vegetation;
  • Riparian stock exclusion fencing to enhance riparian vegetation;
  • Poultry litter management.

(* refer to page 10 for definitions)

Types of activities that will not be funded under this program include:

  • Purely production oriented activities
  • Major farm water supplies including irrigation
  • Purely noxious weed control
  • Purchase of machinery and computer hardware and software, where there is no demonstrated land use change
  • Activities more appropriately funded by other bodies
  • Activities that the land managers can reasonably be expected to undertake to ensure sustainable management of areas under their control.
  • Work that is undertaken before the project agreement for the proposal is signed or after the project agreement ends.
  • Projects that mainly beautify or improve amenity.
  • Standard boundary fencing that is the landholder’s normal responsibility
  • Capital works, for example construction of buildings or viewing platforms to improve amenity
  • Expert advice that could alternatively be provided by the LLS or other government agency
  • Research
  • Any works for mostly private benefit
  • Activities that may be required due to: legal responsibilities, compliance with development consents and/or reasonable duty of care
  • Activities that do not directly deliver on the specified Hunter LocalStrategic Plan outcomes.

The following activities will not be funded under the National Landcare Programme funding component of this program:

  • Activities or investments undertaken, or liabilities incurred, before the Commonwealth enters into a written funding agreement with the successful Applicant
  • Activities that will be receiving, or completed activities that have previously received, funding through other Australian Government (including Caring for our Country or the Biodiversity Fund), state or territory or local government funding initiatives or programmes, or from other third parties, where those activities are substantially the same and in the same location
  • Activities that are the responsibility, or the business, of state, territory or local governments or of private land managers, including activities that are a legislative and regulatory responsibility, such as managing or controlling certain weeds or compliance activities, and activities that would be considered a landholder’s responsibility, such as standard boundary fencing. These activities may be undertaken in conjunction with Programme funded activities provided that Programme funding is not used for them.
  • Activities that are required to be undertaken by any person or are part of an approval under Commonwealth, state or territory legislation, for example, the provision of an environmental offset under the EPBC Act
  • Activities that are likely to have a significant adverse impact on any species or ecological community listed under the EPBC Act, an ecosystem of national or international significance (e.g. a Ramsar listed site, World Heritage area or part of the National Reserve System) or activities with the potential to exacerbate a threatening process listed under the EPBC Act
  • Activities that may have a significant adverse impact on Indigenous cultural heritage and which have not received approval through relevant state or territory legislative requirements
  • Activities that involve planting of species (including native species) that are known to be, or could become, environmental or agricultural weeds in or near the project location
  • Activities or elements of activities that are primarily for the purpose of beautifying or improving amenity, for example, landscaping, picnic tables, shelters and paving
  • Activities that predominantly support applied research, tool building and/or development of modelling approaches except where an activity of this nature is demonstrably required to achieve outcomes in line with Programme objectives and outcomes.

Where to get assistance?

LLS staff are available to assist you with the development of your application, including providing advice on best practice management, design, costing, and developing a detailed project works map. All applications must be accompanied by a project works map showing the location and type of proposed management activities on your property.

Applicants for the Manning Great Lakes Land Management Program will need to complete a Hunter Local Land Services Grant Application Form 2016-17.

Contact details for your local office:

Phone: 02 65518994

Email:

Office: Hunter Local Land Services,98 Victoria Street,Taree NSW 2430.

Lodging Applications

Applications can be lodged in two ways.

  1. Submit the original signed application to the LLS by16th September 2016. Applications post marked this date will be accepted. Send applications to:

Manning Great Lakes Land Management Program

Hunter Local Land Services

P.O. Box 440

Taree, NSW, 2430

  1. Submit your application electronically by 16th September 2016 to

Electronically lodged applications must come from the applicant’s e-mail account and must include a copy of the LLS produced map. The subject line should include the following information:

HR_xxx-“Applicant surname”(the HR_xxx project identifier will be provided by your LLS Officer)

Applications that are sent directly to LLS staff will not be accepted.

As map files can be large in size, please email your application and map separately to ensure the emails are transmitted by the due date but ensure to include theHR_XXXproject identifier on all correspondence.

Incomplete applications will not be accepted.

Assessment Process

Applications will be initially screened to confirm that all eligibility criteria are met andthere is sufficient information in the form for an assessment to be made.

Applications will then be assessed by a panel against the following criteria:

  • The extent and likelihood that proposed land use changes will result in improved grazing and land management practices.
  • The proposed duration and commitment to the project by the applicant
  • Applicant in-kind and cash contribution
  • Level of and integration between grazing, productionand natural resource management outcomes
  • Level of public and private benefit, and value for money
  • Applicant’s capacity to complete projects in the specified timeframes.
  • A risk assessment of the likelihood of a successful project outcome
  • Contribution towards delivery of program outputs and investor priorities.
  • Applicant engagement in previous grant programs
  • Aboriginal cultural heritage outcomes.

The LLS may contact applicants during the assessment process to confirm or clarify any information in the application form.

All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the assessment process.

Further rounds may be opened in 2016-17 if all funds are not allocated

Hunter Local Land Services

1

Conditions of funding

Contracts

All Hunter LLS Land Management Grants will be delivered through a Land Management Agreement.

A copy of the standard contract with all the terms and conditions is available to all applicants to review prior to submitting the application. Please contact the LLS office to access a copy of the standard agreement template.

The contract will need to be signed by the applicant and the land owner (If different). The landholder on the application should match the landholder that will sign the contract and this should also match landholder that will receive the Grant funds.

How will you be paid?

A payment schedule will be determined as part of funding agreement negotiations. Funds will generally be paid 40% on completion of the first milestone which will generally be the submission of a WHS management plan and baseline photo-point monitoring. The remainder of funds will paid on completion of agreed milestones with 10% being withheld for the submission and approval of the final report.

All Grant payments from the LLS will be made during the 2016-17 financial year provided milestones are achieved.

Milestone payments may require a site inspection by the LLS to verify completion of the milestone. A final report on the project outcomes will be required to receive the final payment.

Payment will be made on receipt of a signed ATO compliant tax invoice on completion of agreement milestones.

GST registered Grantees will be paid 10% GST on top of the approved Grant amount.

Applicants should discuss the implications of receiving funding from the LLS with a financial adviser prior to applying.

Monitoring and Reporting

All on-ground projects funded by the LLS will be required to undertake photo point monitoringor take before and after photos of activities. The LLS has a guideline for photo monitoringon the website.

The LLS may also require monitoring of groundcover using the step point monitoring method or native vegetation condition monitoring depending on the type of activities proposed.

Given that funding aims to deliver economic, social and environmental outcomes, LLS will develop with successful grant funding applicants a set of relevant production, profitability and sustainability measures for monitoring and reporting on project outcomes.

All projects funded by the LLS may be included in more detailed vegetation and/or soil condition monitoring undertaken by the LLS.

A final report on the project outcomes will be required to receive a final payment. All agreements will require further brief annual monitoring reports for the agreement duration on the outcomes achieved and the management actions and monitoring undertaken.

Further details of monitoring requirements and templates for reports are available from an LLS contact officer and will be made available to successful applicants.