The NZ Landcare Trust project recently won the inaugural Morgan Foundation New Zealand River Prize at the International River Symposium in Brisbane, which was described as a victory for community-led grass-roots river management.
At that grass-roots level, Sue Brown has been spokeswoman for the dairy farmers in the Aorere catchment area and she admits it has turned her into a lobbyist, quite addicted to representing the rural vote.
In 2004, problems arose when the mussel and cockle industries in the bay were threatened by high bacteria levels. The consensus between scientists and regulators was the most likely cause was stock crossings in streams, as well as standoff areas near streams, from the dairy farms distributed along the Aorere River.
The issue blew up after the shellfish industry developed an environmental sanitation programme and product testing showed spikes in bacteria levels happening randomly within their predicted safe harvest periods.
It could have turned nasty and initially there was conflict as the finger was pointed at dairy farmers, but NZ Landcare Trust stepped in and the parties began working together to achieve a solution. Each party agreed to refrain from a media battle in a bid to work out their differences through conversation with each other.
Back then, identifying and resolving environmental issues in the dairy industry was still evolving and that was summed up by the fact Fonterra had just one sustainable dairy specialist for the entire South Island. It was new ground for farmers and their community to tackle.
“We had to do something, the council had to do something and the marine farmers had to do something. It was give it a shot or go down the litigation path and I don’t think a lawyer would have solved a bacteria problem.”
During the six-year project, farm plans and a greater understanding of how E.coli travelled from pasture to water helped mitigate the problem. In the long run, the process has hurt dairy farmers financially, but they’ve come out of it with greater knowledge of environmental issues, especially in their own catchment, and an acceptance of what is required for council compliance, Brown says.
She considers the region extremely lucky with the Tasman District Council’s approach to environmental compliance. Dairying remains a permitted activity in the Tasman district, so consents aren’t required. The Tasman Resource Management Plan works on outcome-based rules that farmers have to adhere to.
“Outcome-based rules give the TDC complete and utter ability to enforce farm management to not be detrimental to water quality.
The mouth of the Aorere River at Collingwood in Golden Bay.
“It’s there for landowners to use and I think it has been underfunded and underutilised. The role of NZ Landcare Trust is useful because they’re totally cross-boundary and can bring people together to keep those conversations happening. Sometimes it’s as simple as arranging a hall and cups of tea and sometimes it’s connecting with science to bring the right knowledge and researchers in.
“Farmers shouldn’t feel afraid of coming together when they’re facing issues and they can be contacting someone like NZ Landcare Trust to see if there is a space they can be working together. I would like to see more core funding for it and I think that fits best under Ministry for Primary Industries.”
In hindsight, if she was to change anything about the Aorere project, it would have been offering more support for all the farmers. All 33 farmers in the catchment were involved, but Brown says the level of involvement varied, often because of other commitments. A young family or a small farm with long hours can leave little room to get involved.
“If I was to do anything differently, I would have been more supportive to those who weren’t so involved and found out what the barriers were for their involvement.”
Again in hindsight, the group could have involved farm staff more in the project and also sheep and beef farmers on the surrounding hills.
Funding covered 24 farm plans which farmers have been working on over the years – and it has taken years. Costs to get some of the Aorere farms environmentally compliant have been horrendous and it’s been one of the biggest challenges, especially for smaller farms.
Brown and partner John Nalder own a 300-cow farm where they have spent “well over” $400,000 to achieve the goal and still haven’t completed everything on the plan. It’s the cost of owning a farm criss-crossed with waterways and the flood repair work when the Aorere River floods across its paddock. A conversion on a simple property would have been cheaper in the long run, but their farm is a spectacular location not easily given up.
They’ve completed more than 12km of riparian fencing – and still have more smaller drains to complete – realigned fences, and installed a bridge, an underpass and an effluent system.
“When we talk about ecological outcomes and conservation outcomes, it has to be matched to economic outcomes. It’s quite incredible what people want private landowners to fund. Yet they wouldn’t like it if we came on to their private section and insisted they all have pure wool carpets.”
For most farmers, mitigating environmental effects requires retrofitting and that, Brown says, can be sneakily expensive.
“We talk of the straight-up cost of the bridge, but we forget all the bits that happen as a consequence of that bridge. We don’t add up the cost of realignment of laneways when the bridge is in a slightly different place to the old crossing, or moving laneways away from running alongside waterways, or realigning to remove corners, or rearranging paddock shapes to reduce cow walking distances.
“One thing the dairy industry underestimates is how much farmers have to spend on repairs and maintenance to support compliance. I think we kid ourselves about what farmers need to spend long-term.”
Many farmers felt the demand to improve water quality was insatiable at times, but it wasn’t an option they could ignore, she says.
“Every problem was once a solution is a saying I find useful to reflect on when dealing with environmental issues and change. It explains why we often seem behaviourally reluctant to change and reminds us to take care in what solution we adopt to make sure we don’t solve one issue by creating other problems.”
Knowledge is crucial to tackle each problem and the Aorere farmers now have extensive knowledge of their catchment. In the end, Brown says it has put them in a good place to continue to move forward on environmental issues and at the same time has helped the community understand a little more about the industry. Though planting riparian strips with community helps, it does not necessarily alter negative views about dairy farming, she adds.
“It’s enabled us to stay on good terms with the shellfish farmers and the rest of the community though. In an area this small, you can’t have a disagreement like that carrying on. As dairy farmers, we could see that while we were a significant contributor to the local economy, the aquaculture industry is too and that keeps employment opportunities in the bay.
“It’s been said so often that it’s overused, but through collaboration you can get far better outcomes than through court. Eighty percent of the time 80% of us can agree.”
