Clean Streams Accord 2011

In Taranaki the Clean Streams Accord is working really well, with a voluntary Riparian Management Programme where 68% of the stream banks are protected through retirement fencing. The region has a target of planting 90% of the stream banks by 2015.

The Taranaki Riparian Management Programme started in 1993, pre-dating the Clean Streams Accord.

When it was first proposed, the Clean Streams Accord targets were :

• 90% of Taranaki dairy farms to have a property plan by 2010

• 50% of property plans to be implemented by 2010, 90% by 2015

• 50% of regular crossing points are to have bridges or culverts by 2007, 90% by 2015

• 100% of dairy farms to have an effluent consent that complies with the regional plan by 2004

• 60% of regionally significant wetlands are to be fenced by 2005, 90% by 2010

• Fonterra to have 100% of dairy farms with systems in place to manage nutrient inputs and outputs by 31 December 2007

Riparian management has been a big focus in Taranaki for years – since before the Clean Streams Accord was established. The Riparian Management Programme started by the Taranaki Regional Council began in 1993.

It is a voluntary programme, targeting the intensively farmed ring plain, with the Council providing a property planning service and ongoing support to farmers to fence and plant waterways crossing their land. Part of the support is the Council supplying plan holders with low cost plants.

When the Accord was signed in 2003 Taranaki was already well placed to meet the targets. “As part of the Accord, the TRC and the local dairy industry prepared a regional version with some ambitious targets”, says the Council’s operations director Rob Phillips.

However the programme is wider than just dairy farms, encompassing drystock farms on the ring plain as well.

Taranaki has 1699 Fonterra suppliers and a small number of other dairy farm suppliers like Open Country Cheese.

It’s a huge programme with riparian plans now covering 12,500 km of streams in total. This represents more than 2300 riparian plans having been prepared, covering 95% of all dairy farms in the region.

Of this, 8001km of streambanks are fenced already, most of which (6618km) were existing. However, it still represents farmers voluntarily putting in 1383km of new fencing to prevent livestock from entering waterways.

Of the 5326km of stream banks protected by planting and vegetation, 4557km were already in place when the riparian plans were prepared. Again, farmers have voluntarily planted 769km of streambanks. This past winter almost 278,000 plants went into the ground in riparian plantings. “They are all native plants and next year we hope to have 300,000 plants planted”, Rob says. This makes the programme one of the largest enhancement planting schemes in New Zealand. Since 1996 the TRC has supplied more than 1.9 million plants to plan holders.

“There’s quite a bit being done, and it is exciting because it’s non-regulatory”, Rob says. “Farmers are future-proofing their region.”

Last year 369km was fenced and of that 156km was planted.

98% (compared to a target of 50%) of all regular stream crossing points at the regional level are adequately bridged or culverted.

Also 100% of dairy farms have a farm dairy effluent discharge consent which complies with the Taranaki Regional Fresh Water Plan. And 91% of regionally significant wetlands are fenced (the target was 90% by 2010).

As well, 99.6% of Fonterra suppliers have a nutrient budget in place.

In some other regions there is a community group approach, but in Taranaki the emphasis is on building good relationships with individual farmers.

Rob says detailed water quality monitoring undertaken by the council also confirms the success of the programme. The issue is reducing the impacts of intensive farming on water quality. “Unlike other regions our rivers are short and they get flushed out by the rain so our fresh water story is pretty good.”

Despite increasing land intensification, water quality monitoring at 55 sites between 1995-2009 has shown no significant deterioration in stream health while 16 sites have shown strong to very strong improvement.

The TRC has eight staff working full time on its riparian management programme.

Rob says this isn’t a regional council programme, it’s a Taranaki programme. “It’s about the farming community getting on with it and doing the right thing without regulations. Some years ago we looked at the barriers to people planting. Part of the reason why they weren’t was around the cost of plants, lack of information, not enough time, and riparian work wasn’t top of a dairy farmer’s mind. So to overcome some of these we bulk tender for the supply of specified riparian plants grown to our specifications.

They are grown in the Central North Island. We supply the plants at cost to the farmers who buy them at $2.50 each which is about $2 less than they would cost without the tender system.

There’s no subsidy or grant money, our contribution is staff time. It is a good model. This has taken a dedicated team of people since 2002/3, and our work in the last four years has accelerated.

The property plans are on an A3 sheet, they have the plan of the farm on one side; the detail on the other.

Because we are a party to the Clean Streams Accord, our targets are set until 2015, so it’s full steam ahead until then.

Our objectives are to get stock out of the rivers, and in doing so, we will future-proof Taranaki.

Taranaki has a heap more streams than other areas – and a heap more rain.

There are about 230 streams and rivers coming off the mountain, a very dense concentration.

The planning stage for the programme is largely complete, and the focus is now on implementation. In time we want to double the number of plants being planted by farmers and are confident we will get there.

In Taranaki the emphasis is on working with farmers. The results obtained via the programme and Accord have only been possible because of the good relationship the Council has built up over time with the farming community. It means working with individual farmers. The way we connect is 1:1 relationships. There is no way of doing it better than dealing one on one with farmers.

I am suggesting the Taranaki model has some application elsewhere.”

Ian and Judith Armstrong bought this farm in 1979 but then went overseas to Tanzania for a dairying project for the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs for two years.

When they came back they had 135 cows milking on 96 ha, and over time they progressively added more land and more cows. Now they have just over 1000 cows. Another 5km down the road they have a 240 cow farm – this was land owned by Ian’s grandfather.

Ian’s been involved in dairy industry politics: he was deputy chairman of Kiwi Dairies at the time of the merger with Fonterra.

He had a term on the regional council and now is in his second term as a councilor for the South Taranaki District Council which is based in Hawera.

The couple started planting in 1998. It is a windy farm and even though they are about 5km from the sea, they get salt damage on hedges and even on pasture. At first they planted eucalypts then pines, some for stock shelter, some in the waste areas alongside the rivers.

They also removed trees including old Pinus muricata, removed boxthorn (it hurts like nothing else) and milled the macrocarpa on the farm to use in their house. They then started fencing off the streams and planting, some with five or six rows, some with one, depending on the contour.

“One reason we fence and plant out our waterways is to improve management on the farm. Because if you don’t fence, and you go and get cows at some ungodly hour you are likely to see half a dozen looking at you from the other side of the stream.

Yes water quality is important but it doesn’t affect us directly. It’s something we should do to be responsible. Around here there is a public water scheme, which reduces our need to take water out of the streams”.

The stream is also important for trout, and the vegetation gives the fish shade and shelter along the banks. But the vegetation has made access more difficult for the fishermen since the streams have been fenced and planted. One fisherman who catches and releases brown trout says he is seeing many more trout than ever, so the plantings are making a difference.

The drivers are threefold: management, aesthetics and bird life.

“The negatives were pests, possums, and hares in the early days. Pukekos like to pull out smaller plants. There’s a self-help possum scheme, so we have permanent bait stations for them.

We made mistakes; planted a lot of flax which spreads and spreads into fences, so we have learnt not to plant it right next to fences. We have reduced the number of species we plant : toetoe, taupata, karamu and cabbage trees. Then there are akeake, grisilinea and pohutukawa.

We probably plant 1000 to 1500 trees a year; 1000 from the Regional Council and another 500 from our own nursery.

From our house section, Judith pots up totara, kowhai, pittosporums, coprosmas, hebes and puriri.

“We grow hebes in the harder areas so they grow slower and seed better in comparison to fertile areas where their growth explodes, and then they die. We also use banksias in dry rocky areas which are good for feeding birds and bees over winter.

The Regional Council plants are a reasonable price, varying from $2.27 to $3.07 on average.

We look after the plantings for three years by hand clearing and then spraying. Releasing is a big job and absolutely essential. We really struggle to get anyone to help us do it because people hate hand-weeding. And often it is too windy here to spray.

It took us a long time to figure out how to control some of the weeds like convululus: it treats glyphosate like fertiliser.

Lots of other weeds are easy but not convolvulus.

We have more than 20km of stream sides, 12km of which are now planted. There’s about 2km more planting to do”.

Ian says they have a lot of drains or very small waterways, most of which dry up in summer. Most are fenced although there is still more to do, but very few of them are planted.

“This is the first year Fonterra are auditing us for the Clean Streams Accord.

Three or four winters ago there was a big project on the Waiteika Stream with 60 children from the local school, and it was turned into a real outdoor classroom exercise about planting. We’ve had an awful lot of feedback from the parents about it. The Regional Council came out to show them how to plant. Then two winters ago the Regional Council wanted to do a publicity thing with Fonterra, and there were two TV crews from TV1 and TV3 who arrived in a helicopter. They filmed the same stream.”

The Armstrongs have also fenced some coastal bush on the farm which includes tawa. Because it’s been fenced coming up 30 years the trees are now a substantial size (it had been milled over in the past).

We look at them and then we look at the mountain.

“We re-fenced the bush, bringing the fence out a bit to include some areas to plant. Our QEII National Trust rep Neil Phillips gave us some tawa to plant.

Recently we saw a pair of kereru there, which we haven’t had before. The Taranaki Regional Council are not overly prescriptive. The person we have helping us is really enthusiastic; it’s a really good relationship. I don’t see them as a regulatory authority, but rather as a valuable partner in our farming operations. Our fences are stock proof with mains electricity and three wires, including around the QEII block.