One of the lifestylers, truck driver and former All Black loose forward Andy Earl said he’d love to create a corridor of native plants and protected wetlands in the area.
Earl started planting natives on his Fernside block after he sold his North Canterbury farm seven ago.
A springhead on his property feeds the unofficial Easterbrook Creek and a lattice of streams and man-made drains.
Banding together on planting and fencing was a common cause to advance what’s already there, he said.
The Easterbrook Rd community planting group is spending just over $176,000 to create a natural 1.8km waterway to Fernside Rd, restoring original local streams as much as possible.
They had a head start on the project because, unlike other parts of the old Flaxton swamp, their heavy country from Easterbrook Rd to the springhead had never been cut into drains.
Next step is re-establishing native plants and protecting rare ones that have survived 150 years of farm development.
Riparian buffers will help stop sediment flowing into streams and suppress weed growth from runoff. Near-vertical ditch embankments will be smoothed in places and fences will exclude stock from waterways, as per council rules.
Earl has some handy allies in the project including dairy farmer Dave Ashby and landscape architect Grant Edge, the chairman and deputy chairman of the Waimakariri Zone Committee, a public body creating water policy in the catchment.
Edge said deep ditches capture and divert fast-moving floodwater but it doesn’t make sense for councils to have to continually dig them them to remove the weed and sediment they trap.
Nor is it ideal when councils dumped the dregs along the banks, creating unsightly, weed-infested mounds, or for water races down-country to flood coastal towns.
In North Canterbury fast-growing towns like Rangiora and Kaiapoi are struggling to cope with the flows as well as nutrient-rich water contaminating drinking supplies. Nearby areas like the once-pristine Silverstream near the Waimakariri River are recording record nitrate levels.
There is no single answer to improving the district’s water, Edge said.
The zone committee prefers small groups volunteering on local projects rather than councils legislating for every type of farm, lifestyle block and residential area.
The Easterbrook Rd landowners are putting up $126,000 for their project while the regional council has granted just under $50,000 from the Intermediate Steps biodiversity fund. The group also hopes to attract support from local businesses.
