2019-01-14 General Committee Agenda - Attachment 2 to Item 2 - Aquatic Restoration and Management Options

Restoration and management options
One of the main purposes of the expert workshop was to identify the range of potential
restoration and/or management options that could be considered in an effort to achieve the
objectives outlined above. Evaluating a diverse set of alternative options is at the heart of
good science-based decision making. To this end, the expert participants were asked to
think broadly and freely about restoration and management options, and were explicitly
instructed not to consider the socio-political feasibility or desirability of the options. This
was done to limit the risk that experts would prematurely discard potential options because
of perceived socio-political feasibility issues. Although societal values must be a critical part
of any decision about restoration and management of Noosa Estuary, we did not believe
that this group of experts were the right people to consider such values, especially in the
absence of community consultation. Instead, the experts were asked only to consider the
technical feasibility of proposed options. It is important, therefore, to be clear that these
options do not constitute recommendations, only the set of possible options that were
identified and evaluated in the workshop.
A total of 14 options were identified (see Table 2). Broadly, these include 7 restoration
options and 7 options that focus on management of existing activities within Noosa Estuary.
These options are moderately specific, which was necessary so that experts were conceiving
of the same thing during their subsequent evaluations. This, however, means that there are
likely multiple ways to execute each of these options. The 14 options span a wide range of
habitats and activities, and while not exhaustive, is likely to represent most of the spectrum
as far as types of aquatic restoration and management that could occur in Noosa.




Table 2 Restoration and management options identified during the expert workshop.
Option                    Key actions
                                           Restoration options
Restoration of seagrass    Restore seagrass habitat through improved control and redesign (e.g.,
                            swing moorings) of boat moorings
Oyster reef restoration    Create oyster reefs initially in Weyba Creek and Lake Weyba
Living shorelines          Replace hardened shoreline protection with structures that incorporate
                            mangroves and oyster reefs
                           Improve biological connectivity and extent of habitat mosaic between
                            Noosa and Tewantin
Provide habitat/hard       Sub-tidal reef structures in the main channel between Noosa and Tewantin
substrate stepping         Improve biological connectivity through increase hard substrate and
stones                      habitat mosaics
Prawn restocking           Restocking of prawns into the lakes and river
Restoration of Kin Kin     Assess current inputs and status of catchment
catchment                  Improved land management practices
Habitat provision for      Improve habitat availability for iconic species raptor species by
Raptors                     supplemental feeding
                           Local education campaign and initiative


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