Cattle farmer Will Bush knows more than a few things about the lay of the land.
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The Pappinbarra and Gloucester cattle producer is calling on government agencies to consider damming parched creeks before they are eroded by future rain events.
"Our creeks are going to be ripped apart if we have a large storm because all the banks have been dug up from cattle," he said.
"If you have an unrestricted flow of water it will rip trees out and with a fire going through as well you could lose a lot more.
"It's not a good option to leave it because that process is undercutting land all the time, you lose that land for farming."
Significant rains could pour soil and bushfire ash into waterways, according to Mr Bush.
"If you can slow the water down by creating barriers it would reduce erosion and potentially solve many problems," he said.
"If we put in some dams we won't have as much erosion and we won't be wasting as much critical water or flushing unwanted material into the sea.
"One or two megalitre farm dams would be perfect with a spillway two-thirds the way up. An ordinary clay dam would be sufficient because water would still be able to flow under the sandy base.
"In a period of drought like this it's going to happen more regularly, which is one of the big problems."
High risk areas for poor water quality and associated fish deaths are being identified by the NSW Department of Primary Industries.
"Bushfires have resulted in the loss of vegetation, particularly ground cover and riverbank vegetation that stops rainfall carrying soils to waterways," said a NSW DPI spokesperson.
"Heavy rainfall can carry soils, ash and organic matter into rivers and creeks, resulting in poor water quality and low dissolved oxygen conditions.
"This can have negative impacts on aquatic environments, drinking water quality and agricultural industries.
"Increased water temperatures and low flows can also trigger greater breakdown of organic matter in waterways by bacteria, which can also reduce oxygen levels in the water.
"Fish deaths are a common result of this sudden depletion of dissolved oxygen. Historical, large scale fish kills have occurred in NSW and Victoria after extensive bushfires."
The Department has ongoing concerns for further fish deaths statewide as dry and very low flow conditions persist, said the NSW DPI spokesperson.
"The risk of fish deaths is also increasing as a result of widespread bushfires across NSW," she said.
"DPI is taking proactive steps to rescue and relocate populations of threatened species of fish that are at risk of further population decline.
"Fish rescued will be relocated to safer habitat areas within their population range and to the Grafton Fisheries Hatchery for breeding and restocking when conditions improve.
"Standard sediment and erosion control strategies can be applied to manage sediment entering waterways, however given the scale and location of bushfires this is only being applied by some councils around water supply infrastructure such as dams."
Mr Bush cites the research work of Upper Hunter Valley grazier and race horse breeder, Peter Andrews at Tarwyn Park as a prominent example to follow.
Mr Andrews' research called Natural Sequence Farming promoted the theory of restoring his and other properties to fertility by reducing the erosion caused by free-flowing waterways.
Natural landscape patterns such as reintroducing vegetation were reintroduced to combat erosion.
"Peter put logs and rocks across creeks, he grew all the things you're not supposed to such as willows, blackberries and reeds," said Mr Bush.
"It brought a natural habitat to the creeks and the water quality was much better."
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