Aorere farmers’catchment project attracts more ministry funding
Green Party list MP Kevin Hague, Landcare Trust CEO Dr Nick Edgar, Rockville farmers Brent and Michelle Riley, project co-ordinator Gretchen Robertson, and Ferntown farmers John Nalder and Sue Brown.
The Aorere Catchment Project, an initiative intended to make the Aorere River cleaner, has gained three further years’ funding.
At a celebration luncheon at the Kahurangi Function Centre last Friday, the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Paul Stocks, announced that the project has secured a further $259,000 from the ministry’s sustainable farming fund.
“We’re putting up the cash, but you guys are putting up so much on top of that,” he told the farmers.
The money will be used to develop further individual farm environment plans and to spread the project idea to other areas in the region, beginning with the Rai Valley.
The celebration was attended by the Minister for the Environment, Dr Nick Smith, and Green Party list MP Kevin Hague as well as representatives of the New Zealand Landcare Trust, which co-ordinates the scheme, Dairy NZ, Federated Farmers, the Golden Bay Stream Care group, and the Golden Bay Marine Farmers.
Dairy farmers from the Aorere catchment and their guests heard speakers praise the farmer-driven aspect of the scheme and the individual nature of the on-farm plans. Sue Brown gave a brief history of the project, highlighting the extent to which the farmers in the catchment were prepared to ‘buy in’ to a scheme that involved plenty of soul-searching as well as expense, plus a good deal of trust in the experts who came and consulted with individual farmers.
Dr Nick Edgar, CEO of the New Zealand Landcare Trust, spoke of the leadership displayed by key figures in the scheme.
“Leadership involves a fair amount of bravery, relationship-building and risk-taking,” he said. “You should celebrate your achievement today.”
The scheme arose out of the problems faced by Golden Bay’s marine farmers due to E. coli spikes in the water discharged from the Aorere River. In 2005 and 2006 they were able to harvest mussels less than 30 per cent of the time because of the water quality. The dairy farmers in the Aorere catchment took ownership of their part of the problem and set out to solve it in a community-wide way.
Stream fencing and riparian planting has reduced run-off from paddocks during rain events. Farmers have also changed the way they manage effluent. Now mussel harvesting can take place about 78 per cent of the time and marine farmers’ representative Bill Wallace told the farmers, “You have earned our respect.”
Dr Smith spoke about the value of New Zealand’s freshwater resources in the future.
“The countries with water will be the wealthy countries,” he said. “We have to make sure that we preserve our number one status when it comes to clean water.”
Mr Hague said that the Greens strongly endorsed the collaborative nature of the project, saying, “You have provided the template for future action in other catchments.”
Gretchen Robertson, who has been the project co-ordinator for the New Zealand Landcare Trust, said that one of the effects of the newly announced funding was that the project’s philosophies could be shared with communities in other catchments.
“This project was different from others that the Sustainable Farming Fund supported. It was great that the fund took a punt on it. Now it can be taken wider – starting with the Rai Valley.” Neil Wilson
