Harbour community shares vision for catchment

Water quality, erosion and climate change were just some of the issues discussed with landowners in the Te Manaia sub-catchment of Tauranga Harbour at community vision meeting held this week.

The meeting, which was attended by staff, councillors and members of the community, was hosted by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council along with Kaimai Catchment Project partners NZ Landcare Trust and Department of Conservation.

The meeting was called to share information with landowners in the sub-catchment and gain their feedback on what land and water management issues they considered to be most important.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Manager Land Resources (Western) Robyn Skelton said it was great to hear what landowners within the catchment saw as issues and priorities.

“Te Manaia landowners were very interested in the sediment and water quality data that was presented to them at the meeting.”

“Landowners also expressed concern about contaminants that may be entering the stream and were keen for the Council to approach and work with landowners to resolve this,” Ms Skelton said.

During the facilitated exercise a number of issues were identified by the landowners. These included the request for information specific to the Te Manaia catchment about silt, nutrients and e-coli.

Other issues discussed included the need for water quality monitoring of nutrient run-off, climate change and its impacts such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, increased rainfall, weed species changes and droughts.

Ms Skelton said that along with valuable information gathered regarding erosion and sedimentation issues faced by landowners, there was also a desire by landowners to get involved in wetland restoration.

“Landowners expressed the need for management plans to assist with the development and restoration of wetlands.”

“We’re looking forward to using this information to further develop our catchment plans so that what we plan to do actually works for the landowners on the ground,” Ms Skelton said.

The information collected will also contribute to furthering the Kaimai Catchments Project - a multi-agency approach to enabling community-led catchment management and will help to inform local strategic planning for the Department of Conservation.