Hello Marsh Chatterers - what a lot of noise and placing of blame! Since the bottom line of this debate seems to be “Macquarie Marshes” one must ask What is a Marsh? My dictionary says it is a wetland covered at times by water. So what is the best scientific way to ‘manage’ available water flows to ensure marshes remain marshes? It is not so much the amount of water, as how well the available water is managed that matters. Fat ducks and fat cattle are not part of this debate. The natural inhabitants of the Marshes will continue to favour them for their purposes if water is ‘managed’ to keep them as marshes. Otherwise, not being stupid, our beloved Aussi species will migrate to other favoured wet places in this great land of ours. Suggested solution would be if more land around this area were bought by Marsh Lovers, so that other uses for the current marsh water flows ceased to be an issue. The best possible circulation of available water through the area could then become a priority.

Migratory Spoon Bill

Future your comments about the water sharing plans are nonsense. There has been no backward steps for the Marshes in the last two plans, 1996 and 2004. Since 2000 there has been very little water to share, as you pointed out yourself earlier. This is hardly the fault of the plan.
Spoonbill suggests why don't conservation groups or the NSW Govt buy more country in the marshes since only 10% of it is reserved? What a great idea! It could then be managed for conservation, with the problems of overgrazing and water diversion/ manipulation highlighted in Jennifer's article overcome.
Brolga

What's this? Cheap beef on your plate verses the luxury of watching the wild birds breed in the Marshes? Due to threaten your chicken dinner, re bird-flu likelyhood of reaching our island shore, who is being vagilant enough to check, 'Duckfeetchinacafe,' has not imported this delicacy for use in its many outlets in Australia, via the black market, there will be neither meat on your plate.

Jennifer of course your rational approach is right and many have been concerned by the amazing alliance between NPWS scientists and graziers for some time. Much the same was true in the Cooper issue a few years ago. The impact of grazing on the drylands around the Cooper Basin was utterly neglected by the scientists in supporting graziers in the campaign against a proposal to irrigate around 10,000 ha out of a catchment area of perhaps 100,000 squ km + trashed by a century and a half of grazing. Perhaps the irrigation project was not a good idea but to ignore the impact of grazing on the whole catchment...give me a break.

R, I don't for a minute suggest we ignore the impact of grazing. I don't see how you can read this into the piece? There are photos of the impact of grazing at my blog, including at this post titled 'Cattle Killing the Macquarie Marshes': http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000949.html .

J sorry my poor syntax, I did not mean you ignored grazing, far from it, I meant in the case of the Cooper it was utterly, and still was last time I was Innamincka, ignored.