While the benefits of planting trees to ameliorate soil salinity are well recognised, a lack of clear economic drivers for reforestation has seen uptake by producers remain low — especially on land where trees would displace profitable agriculture. However, this might all change with the emergence of markets for carbon sequestration and bioenergy from trees in response to national climate change policies. During 2002 a Joint Venture Forestry Project (JVAP)-funded publication, Trees, Water and Salt — an Australian Guide to Using Trees for Healthy Catchments and Productive Farms, set out guidelines for revegetation of farmland as part of a strategy to manage dryland salinity. While based on the best science at the time, the principles were yet to be field tested at a catchment scale.
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