How much organic carbon is stored in Australia’s rangelands, and how would you measure it efficiently as part of an immense carbon-farming initiative? The on-ground surveys described in this paper collected detailed information that will help establish a remote-sensing methodology to assess carbon stored in mulga woodlands and the rate of carbon sequestration. On suitable sites, carbon farming could help sequester Western Australia’s greenhouse-gas emissions, rehabilitate country, and provide a new income stream for pastoral communities.

Assessing the health of vegetation and soils is essential for managing grazing in natural pastures. Four simple indicators reliably assessed pasture health. (1) Pastures were in good, fair, poor or very poor health based on tree death and the condition of vegetation and soils, (2) healthy groves of trees were larger and (3) had a healthy band of perennial grasses upslope of groves, and (4) sites in poor health had soil erosion. These four pasture health indicators are widely applicable.