Celebrating 5 years of our sub-catchment groups

We’ve had great support from locals and landowners over the past five years for localised water quality monitoring. Farmers love the idea because they want to know what impact their catchment has on the main river stem. Our members are always keen to see how their waterways measure up after each month’s testing. The results are used to pinpoint any issues or trends that appear in water bodies and to measure the progress of their on-farm efforts.

We’re stoked to now have 23 sub-catchment groups monitoring 88, and growing, water sampling sites monthly.

Each sub-catchment group brings local farming and community members together to set goals for the shared purpose of enhancing their catchment environment and they are starting to share their stories of success to encourage and motivate others to follow suit.

Sub-catchment groups are planning ahead, and laying the groundwork for what can be achieved over the next 10, 15, and 20 years and ensuring the environment is well looked after for future generations.

Over the past few years, we’ve had the benefit of employing three staff members to support our committee and sub-catchment group chairs. A bigger team has further developed our relationship with iwi, Horizons Regional Council and other environmental groups. This has enabled us to deliver workshops, start larger projects and put us in a better position to attract further funding for these.

A key success has been supporting members to undertake Old Man’s Beard control within 1,400 hectares of native bush and plant 25,000 native trees and poplars in the Rangitīkei. This was done as part of our Environmental Restoration Project supported by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) via the Sustainable Land Use / Jobs for Nature fund.