Hunterfield Dairies wetland
When John Mathers used to swim in the creek at their fifth-generation Sefton farm there were a lot more ferns and flax on the banks.
The willows have taken over and he and his wife Davinia Harrison have set about clearing them to improve the wetland area at Hunterfield Dairies.
"The willows have started to take a hold and choke everything out," he says. "We’ve had a team in drilling and spraying these willows and you can see they’ve had a pretty good kill here which has really opened the light up for some of the younger plants to come through. It’s a rather large wetland so they’re just going to have to do a bit of the time and keep trimming away."
He says there are many natives, flax and carex in the undergrowth and they have already jumped up after spraying six months ago.
"It will hopefully revert back to how it used to look. You can see the big difference between the crack willows and the grey willows how they hold their leaves a lot longer and they definitely choke the bush out a lot more."
Their next job will be shifting the fencelines further from the creek and looking at replanting with more natives.
The couple would like to put a bridge across to the main area so schools and catchment groups can gain access.
Mr Mathers says the local school has already been out once and will hopefully make repeat visits for lessons.
They have several wetlands on their farm, one which they’ve also sprayed out and it’s starting to come back too.
An owl was spotted and birdlife is expected to flourish when vegetation takes hold.
Ms Harrison says they are excited about the ecology of the farm and see it as a good foundation for their children and future generations.
"We just want to make sure we are looking after it as well as we can so it can be enjoyed long term. This part of our business is really important."
Since removing the willows they’ve found a larger possum population existed than previously known, and the pests are now being controlled because they shifted their food source to young natives.
A catchment group tests the creek area every three months to find a baseline for water quality.
Mr Mathers says the wetland restoration wouldn’t have been possible without assistance and funding from Landcare Trust and Environment Canterbury. Fonterra has also put money into catchment planting.
"We’re just going to keep plugging away and planting this creek out until we get it all planted out one day. It’s a very long term project, probably generational to be fair, but you have to start somewhere and keep chipping away. This wetland’s not just ours — it runs into the neighbours and runs through another neighbour and they’re doing their bit to help fence and plant it out so it’s not just a farm thing, it’s a catchment thing."
Wairuna Farm wetland
Lowcliffe’s Angus McKenzie is weeding out problem plants in a lagoon at the coastal end of Wairuna Farm.
The lagoon is at the mouth of the Wairuna Drain which used to be a swamp before the area was drained many years ago and was once the original boundary of Longbeach Estate.
Now it’s on the McKenzie family’s arable farm — their base for cropping, small seed production, a sheep and beef operation and a contracting business.
"We’d fenced it off and started planting native plants in the wetland at least 10 years ago, so it’s reasonably established. We have a plan to move up the drain and establish a few more wetlands.
"When we first fenced off we wanted a wetland and nice native area as quick as possible so we probably did a bit of pushing and planted a few plants, but one of the biggest things I’ve learned from the whole three-year project is let nature do a bit more work."
He says they want to learn more about putting the right plants in the right place.
The focus lately is poisoning more willows to clear the area and establish more native plants, possibly through propagating plants or relocating seedlings from their other wetlands.
"We are trying to develop as many as we can because we enjoy it and the first thing is to fence it from stock and treat it not like a paddock anymore and treat it like a native area."
After making a start on weed control, they’ve concentrated on putting in plants such as flax and cabbage trees and will put in more natives through planting or "seed bombs".
"We were doing a lot of this stuff anyway, but a bonus of it is a lot of our producer programmes and customers are demanding land stewardship."
Mr McKenzie said there was a lot to learn from farmers in the local catchment group, Managing Wetlands as Farm Assets project co-ordinator Tony Watson and Environment Canterbury wetlands principal biodiversity adviser Jason Butt.
"There is the wetlands objective which I’m sure everyone has which is biodiversity for birds and insects and water quality and stuff like that. We’re also a seed producer so we want to support the native pollinators so we are keen to develop on our farm as many native biodiversity corridors as we possibly can and hopefully it will look even prettier than it does now."
Otematata Station wetland
Otematata Station’s Joe and Pip Cameron have taken on a large wetland project to connect them closer to the Otematata village.
The wetland lies at the front of their 40,000ha high-country property in the Waitaki Valley
"The reason why we’ve chosen this spot especially is because we found over the past couple of decades the people who lived here in the village we have a bit of a disconnect with," Mrs Cameron says.
"So we thought what a great opportunity to turn this land into a place we can share with them, that they can interact with us and a place they can enjoy."
The Camerons were impressed by the progress made by community volunteers working on a nearby wetland project.
Mrs Cameron says they’ve had to clear a "heap" of weeds and drawn on the volunteers for advice.
"We’ve got blackberry, we’ve got willow, broom so a large part of this project will be weed control. We are lucky here we’ve had the broom and gall mite introduced into this area and the little mite does a great job of suffocating its host and a lot of the broom has started to die off."
Raupo has spread where willows have been cut and poisoned during a field day and the dead willows have created a habitat for birds and insects.
She says their New Zealand Merino and Silere contracts encourage animal, human and environmental welfare.
"It’s important for us to be doing that and for us to share those findings to the next generation so when they come through they do it better than what we do. It’s like when you plant a fruit tree, you don’t do it for you, you plant it for the next generation to enjoy the fruit and it will be the same with these projects. I may spend my entire time looking after these little seedlings, but my girls get to collect seed from what I grow and then grow more."
- This series will conclude in Central Rural Life next week.
