Environmental significance of snags in the River Murray

"January 1991".

Project Number: Environmental significance of snags in the River Murray - SB/1/6; Australian Water Research Advisory Council Completion Report, Project 85/45.

MDFRC item.

This research program was planned to demonstrate the ecological importance of snags for riverine plant and animal communities, and to develop a basis for decisions about the environmental "value" of snags. It was designed also to provide guidelines to assist river managers to weigh the environmental costs and benefits associated with snag removal. The present report outlines work on snags undertaken in 1987-89, but does not include parts of the study program intended for separate publication (section 6). The report has four main sections: - An overview of the ecology of snags in the Murray, - A summary of field and laboratory investigations undertaken as part of the project, - An outline of the "habitat value" of snags and the adverse impacts of desnagging, and of a protocol being developed to assist in future desnagging work. - Recommendations for further investigations.