ACROSS THE REGION

April 2019, autumn edition

Well, what a summer we’ve had – warm, settled weather was experienced across the region and it was great to see so many people making the most of our swim spot monitoring programme to choose where to cool off.

Council has recently been through the consultation process for our 2019-20 Annual Plan. We appreciate the feedback we received, which will help with our deliberations in early May before adopting the finalised Annual Plan in June.

This edition of Across the Region looks at how we plan to work with local communities over the next few years to continue to improve the health of our rivers and lakes. Our Freshwater Future will be a forward-looking programme that will take stock of what progress we’ve made with fresh water, confirm what outcomes we are seeking to achieve, and check that we have the right set of measures in place to get there. Horizons is just one agency for our region and regulation through the One Plan is just one tool. The Our Freshwater Future programme will be catchment orientated, and will draw together all of our efforts.

Later this year, we will also be proposing a set of changes to the One Plan (our region’s resource management planning document). We have learned that the nutrient management rules do not work the way they were intended. We need to fix these rules to provide a way forward for affected landowners and to manage our natural resources in a sustainable way.

In the meantime, work continues to prevent hill country erosion and mitigate sediment entering our rivers, as well as fencing to keep stock out of waterways and planting riparian margins to filter nutrients while providing habitat for our native fish and insects.

We hope by drawing together these threads, readers can get an appreciation of the breadth of work that contributes to improving fresh water in the region.

Bruce Gordon
CHAIR

OUR FRESHWATER FUTURE

We know fresh water matters to people. It is essential to all life and our sense of wellbeing – socially, culturally, spiritually and economically. As the regional council we have a responsibility to manage it sustainably.

Considerable work is underway to improve fresh water across our region. Community groups, iwi, local councils, landowners and industry organisations are all involved in different ways.

Water quality is improving in many places, but more needs to be done. Achieving the outcomes we desire is likely to be a generational challenge. Further progress will require an integrated approach that combines regulation, funding and economic incentives, education, and locals’ enthusiasm for their environment. It’s time to take stock of how far our existing plans will get us and what we should do next.

We believe that continued improvement can be achieved by working together with local communities, in each of our catchments, to develop a broad-based action plan. In some places, there are already collaborative arrangements in place that we can build on; in others, Treaty settlements provide a framework for looking after our awa.

There is no single solution to maintaining and improving freshwater quality. Every catchment has a different character and faces different issues because of factors such as land use and settlement patterns, climate and geology, natural hazards and climate change. Plans must be supported by evidence and expertise across a range of fields – mātauranga Māori, physical and social sciences, economics, practical know-how. We are therefore proposing to undertake catchment reviews, ensuring that we are looking at each individual catchment and its needs, in conjunction with our communities that call these
places home.

CATCHMENT STRATEGIES

As we undertake catchment reviews, we intend to pull together strategy documents that provide a roadmap for what our communities want for fresh water, and how we intend to get there. They will consider all available tools and provide direction for any rules that need to come into force to help implement our collective resolutions.

We will not solve every issue in one go – part of better freshwater management is developing better ways of working together into the future. Our plans will need to adapt as we learn more about our fresh water, the things that affect
it, and better ways to manage it. This will require ongoing cooperation and commitment from us all.

We plan to tackle this work for seven large catchment areas: Whanganui (where Te Awa Tupua will set the direction), Kai Iwi, Whangaehu, Rangitīkei-Turakina, Manawatū, Horowhenua and Coastal Tararua. For anyone unfamiliar with what a catchment is, it’s an area of land defined by a main water source, and
includes all sources from river to sea that contribute to it.

MANAWATŪ CATCHMENT STRATEGY - TE IA O MANAWATŪ

The first area we plan to focus on is the Manawatū River catchment, which extends from Norsewood to Foxton Beach. Over half of our region’s people live in this area and there is already strong public engagement around restoring the health of the awa. Many groups are already actively involved including the Manawatū River Leaders’ Forum, Environment Network Manawatu, and Tū te Manawa. Stay tuned as we further progress this initiative later this year. If you’d like to know more you can contact info@ourfreshwaterfuture.co.nz. 

IMPLEMENTING NATIONAL POLICY

Regional councils have to implement a range of central government policy, including the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPSFM). The One Plan already goes a long way towards achieving national policy requirements. The One Plan recognises the connections between land, water, and coastal environments, and the need to achieve environmental gains while also providing for communities’ economic wellbeing. It includes specific water-quality objectives, and an integrated strategy to move toward them.

The NPSFM also requires that we set ‘limits’ to ensure that human activities in a catchment align with the water quality objectives the community has set. Where those limits are not currently being achieved, timeframes must be set by which improvements will be made.

Ensuring that our efforts match the outcomes we aspire to is a central part of Our Freshwater Future. Catchment strategies developed with communities will be the main way we implement the NPSFM.

MAKING A PRACTICAL DIFFERENCE, TODAY

Planning for better outcomes will take time. In the meantime, we will continue to work with communities on other work programmes such as preventing erosion, riparian planting, getting direct point-source discharges out of our rivers, and developing more sustainable agricultural practices. These programmes are contributed to by landowners, ratepayers, and central
government via the likes of the Freshwater Improvement Fund.

There is a range of practical ways that landowners and communities can work with Horizons and contribute to the environmental wealth of our region.

One of our biggest programmes is the Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI). The SLUI programme subsidises planting on hill country to prevent land erosion and improve the health of our waterways. Since SLUI’s inception in 2006, over 28,109 hectares of land has been retired and 1,167 kilometres of fencing erected across the region.

Our staff also work with landowners in identified catchments to exclude stock from waterways and plant riparian margins to improve water quality. Since 2013, 380,408 native plants have been planted across our region as part of our freshwater and SLUI programmes.

Planning is now underway for the upcoming planting season with a number of large-scale planting projects to be undertaken. Planting keeps soil on the land, helps to improve water quality, creates shelter, habitat and food for our native species and ultimately makes our region a great place to live, work and play. That said, it’s important to plant the right tree, in the right place, for the right purpose. Our #plantinourregion campaign will be rolling out again this winter and it will be your one-stop shop for advice, support and subsidies on our planting programmes.

In the meantime, if you are interested in finding out more about our programmes, we encourage you to get in touch, our subsidies are often oversubscribed so the earlier you talk to us the better. Contact us now on 0508 800 800 or email help@horizons.govt.nz.

PROPOSED ONE PLAN CHANGES

The One Plan is our region’s regulatory tool. It sets out how natural resources are managed in the Manawatū-Whanganui region, so we can do our part in managing environmental pressures.

Horizons sought to strike the ideal balance between using natural resources for economic and social wellbeing while keeping the environment in good health. The One Plan has been fully in operation since December 2014.

It is evident that parts of the One Plan dealing with the effects of farming and primary production, known as the intensive farming land use provisions, require attention. These are designed to reduce the amount of nutrients, sediment and pathogens that get into water from these activities.

The intent set out in the Plan for nutrient limits for intensive land use (being dairy farming, commercial vegetable growing, arable farming of crops for human or animal consumption, and irrigated sheep and beef farms) is not working well. Therefore the Plan needs to be adapted.

Nitrogen loss from these farming operations is one way the Plan manages the effects of nutrient loss from primary production. The table that manages nitrogen concentrations through limits based off the productive capability of the land (Table 14.2) is now out of step with the latest science and knowledge, and not meeting the aim of being achievable for most farms over time.

The intent of our proposed Plan change is to clarify and amend the nutrient management framework so that it effectively works towards achieving the strategies for surface water quality as set out in the One Plan. In other words, we need some landowners to use less nitrogen, and by doing so, we should see an improvement in water quality.

The changes we are targeting include:
• Providing appropriate consenting pathways according to the effects of intensive land use that need to be managed within target catchments;
• Developing clear and practicable criteria to determine whether a resource consent can be issued, including direction on when a consent cannot be granted (i.e. on the basis of overall environmental impact);
• Ensuring that nitrogen limits reflect the latest science and knowledge; and
• Assessing the evidence and information required to support an application for consent, and figuring out what is reasonably available, and its appropriate cost.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Council is currently in the process of finalising what the proposed Plan changes will look like. Once this is done, the changes will be ‘notified’ to the public which gives our community an opportunity to provide feedback in the form of a submission.

These changes will be of particular interest to dairy farmers, arable farmers, growers of commercial vegetables and farmers who irrigate their sheep and beef operations. It will also be of interest to people who are looking to improve water quality in the Horizons Region, especially those in target catchment areas listed in our Plan (for example, Upper Manawatū, Horowhenua). We are also working with iwi to understand their views.

We expect that notification will take place around the middle of the year and will let everyone know via our website and social media accounts that this is happening.

WHERE YOU CAN GET SUPPORT

We realise that changing regulations could be stressful for some land users as it creates uncertainty. You are welcome to reach out to our rural advice team via freephone 0508 800 800, they can talk you through our current provisions, and where we are targeting the changes.

If you, a neighbour or friend need greater support please contact Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254. Rural Support Trust members are people within your community who can provide a listening ear, practical advice and solutions, and link you up with appropriate professional support if you need it.

VOTE 2019 - LOCAL ELECTIONS

Local Government body elections are being held this October.

If you love this region and have ideas for its future, then you should consider running for Council. Elected members come from all backgrounds and walks of life and you do not require any special qualifications to stand. Learn more at www.horizons.govt.nz

The boundary between two of Horizons’ constituencies (Horowhenua-Kairanga and Manawatū-Rangitīkei) has been changed by the Local Government Commission. The constituencies are now called ‘Horowhenua’ and ‘Manawatū-Rangitīkei’, and the boundary between them is the same as the district council boundary. This change affects some voters who live in the Manawatū District. If you live anywhere in the Manawatū District, in the October election you will vote in the Manawatū-Rangitīkei constituency. You don’t need to make any change to your electoral enrolment, this will happen automatically. Please see our website for more information.

UPCOMING COUNCIL MEETINGS

• Strategy and Policy Committee, 14 May, 10am
• Environment Committee, 15 May, 9am 
• Passenger Transport Committee, 21 May, 10am 
• Regional Council, 28 May, 10am 
• Regional Transport Committee, 5 June, 10.30am
• ManawatūRiver Users Advisory Group, 5 June, 7pm
• Strategy and Policy Committee, 11 June, 10am
• Catchment Operations Committee, 12 June, 9am
• Regional Council, 25 June, 10am

Unless otherwise stated meetings are open to the public and will be held at Regional House, 11-15 Victoria Avenue, Palmerston North. Please note all details were correct at time of sending. However, for the most up-to-date dates and times for council meetings please check www.horizons.govt.nz.