SANDRA and Doug Sanson beside a section of riparian planting on their property in Mangaorongo Rd, Ōtorohanga. Photo Paul Charman
A PROJECT harnessing the enthusiasm of North King Country farmers has led to tens of thousands of native plants being planted along watercourses and erosion-prone land in the Upper Waipā River Catchment.
In January, Waipā Rere Noa formalised an agreement with the Waikato River Authority to enable stage two of the Upper Waipā River Catchment Restoration Project to continue.
The funding gives the Ōtorohanga -based catchment group the capacity to grow and support more farmers in planting native trees on their land.
Fonterra has actively supported the project and its sustainable dairy advisor for the King Country region, Matt Holwill, is delighted with progress.
Matt said his role enabled him to engage Fonterra suppliers in the catchment work across a wide area he knew well.
“Eighty per cent of Fonterra suppliers around the [Ōtorohanga] district now have farm environmental plans completed making them eligible to participate in the project,” he said.
The restoration work of Waipā Rere Noa – Stage Two is focused on improving the water quality in the Waipā River as it flows past Te Keeti Marae on the edge of Ōtorohanga.
“By retiring critical source areas on farm and planting them with native vegetation, our group expects to see measurable improvements in water quality in the Waipā river in the next decade,” Matt said.
A foundation member of the group, Gabrielle Morgan from Te Keeti Marae, said she could already feel the mauri of the river changing.
Speaking of land surrounding Te Keeti Marae, Gabrielle said watercress had returned to the tributary stream that ran alongside their marae, and “the river looks and feels better than it did 10 years ago.”
The catchment group expects these improvements to continue, with Matt pointing out that it is up to the farming community as to how quickly they want restoration work to occur.
“But already this restoration work is making a real difference.”
In May and June of this year 35,000 native plants were to be delivered onto farms around the district, at a subsidised cost to the farmer of $1 per plant.
The funding agreement has ensured this
can keep going into 2024 and 2025, and catchment groups plan for this work to continue in the years following.
Farmers participating in the project are being encouraged to take on as much planting work as their farming businesses can sustain.
A quantity of 300-1000 new plants each per year seemed realistic for the catchment group members, with a number of businesses planting 2000 plants a year.
To date about 60 farmers had made the most of the opportunity, Matt said.
Most of the plantings on the farms around the district are not visible from the road, so the farmer representative on the organising committee, Doug Sanson, has been installing catchment signs at the entrance of farms engaged in the process.
“As you drive around the district the community, you can now recognise the 60 farmers who have come on board to support the catchment restoration work so far,” he said.
“Our group has the capacity to grow to support more farming businesses and enquiries are always welcome.”
The foundations for the project are laid when the farming businesses develop their farm environment plans.
Through this environmental planning process, farmers identify the land on their farms which has the highest risk of contaminant loss (nitrogen, sediment, ecoli, and phosphorus).
As part of the consultation with the farmer, a discussion is had about the business’s capacity to retire high risk land from pastoral production.
In most cases, this high-risk land is also the most unproductive land on the farm and there is little impact on the profitability of the farming business by retiring the land from production.
The catchment group then engages with the farming business to facilitate the planting of natives onto this high-risk land.
Both the Waikato Regional Council and the Waikato River Authority are key funders of the Waipā Rere Noa – Stage One.
Any farmers in the greater Ōtorohanga District who would like to join the catchment group and participate in the 2024 planting season, were being encouraged to contact Matt to formalise their intentions.
Matt’s contacts are: Matthew Holwill, Fonterra Sustainable Dairy Advisor – King Country Region, matthew.holwill@fonterra.com
