Mangere Catchment Group

26 November 2018

NORTHLAND REGIONAL COUNCIL

Minutes of the Mangere Catchment Group workshop

held at Kokopu School, Whangarei on Monday 26 November 2018

Commencing at 6:30pm 

Group members and regular attendees

Present:

Shayne O’Shea                                             Dairy Farming

Susan Karels                                                   Lifestyle

In Attendance:

John Ballinger                                                Northland Regional Council        

Apologies:

Joce Yeoman                                                 NRC Councillor

Sharon Morgan                                             Whangārei District Councillor

Royce Kokich                                                 Dairy Farming

Chris Frost                                                       Horticulture

Helen Moodie                                               DairyNZ

Roger Holder                                                 Dairy Farming

Tania Pene                                                     Te Rūnanga Ā Iwi O Ngāpuhi

Hona Edwards                                               Te Uriroroi

Finnisha Turiwai-Birchall                           Te Parawhau

Due to the low turnout, final decisions on the items listed in the agenda could not be made. John to prepare supporting information for each item and email to group participants. Group participants to read material and rank their preferred actions (1-5) listed under Item 3 before the next catchment meeting in February 2019.  

Item 1:        Apologies and welcome

The apologies were received.

Item 2:        Where’s your Wai?

John showed Shayne and Susan the councils app “Where’s your Wai?”, and encouraged them to log any freshwater sites that have significance to them.

Item 3:        Implementation of nonregulatory actions

There remains a balance of $8,561 (excluding GST) to be spent by 30^th June 2019 on the implementation of non-regulatory actions as listed in the Mangere Catchment Plan. John put forward some potential ideas which were discussed below:

Planting days.

•  Would like to organise 2-3 planting days for next season involving Enviroschools (Kokopu School, Maungatapere School, Comrie Park Kindergarten and Matarau School).
•  Ideally 1 school per planting day, with 500 plants per site. Free plants to be sourced from Te Arai Nursery. John to order.
•  Next site Kevin and Patricia Sidwell (Dairy). Whole group need to find a drystock site, and a horticulture or lifestyle site. Landowners to undertake site preparation and releasing.
•  BBQ and bus to be booked for each planting day.
•  John to follow up with Judith Gatenby and Michael Waymouth (previous planting day with Kokopu School) to see how plants are faring. Kokopu School may return to undertake plant releasing. 

Signage

• General support for signage to be erected at properties (with landowner approval) indicating the planting work was carried out by the Mangere Catchment Group and Enviroshools initiatives.
• Indicative cost per sign is $126 + GST, not including mounting material.
• John/Susan to prepare a sign template for the group to review at next meeting.

SHMAK kit

•  This kit enables non-scientists and schools to collect consistent, scientifically valid information from small rural streams and to use that information to make assessments of stream health.
•  NRC has kits that schools can borrow, but it might be better if each school had its own kit.
•  The complete kit (including manual) costs $495 + GST. One for each school would cost $1,980 + GST. Price including GST = $2,277.
•  Before purchasing, would want to ensure the kits will be regularly used by the schools.

Elver transfer

•  In the previous meeting the group had voiced a desire to help support the eel/tuna (elver) transfer from below Wairua Falls to the upper catchment, now undertaken by Finnisha Turiwai-Birchall.
•  John to contact Finnisha to see whether transfers are still taking place, and if so, how the catchment group might help.

Summer event

•  Shayne and Susan were interested in developing a summer event to celebrate the river. Such an event might involve a hike and BBQ in the Pukenui Forest (headwaters of the Mangere), or a photographic workshop.
•  Another idea is a cultural ‘story time’ event with Māori and Pakeha stories/experiences relating to the river and local area. This could be supplemented with a scientific description of the landscape (soils, vegetation, hydrology etc) by a local expert e.g. Bob Cathcart.

Poplars/willows for erosion control

•  Shayne and Susan keen to target erosion prone land in the catchment. NRC provides free poplar and willow poles from the council nursery for the purposes of soil conservation and erosion control in the greater Kaipara Catchment.
•  John said there were between 20-25 farm plans completed by NRC for properties within the catchment to date. The farm plan process is used by NRC to identify areas requiring planting for erosion control. This is a free service. 

Item 4:        Frequency of meetings

• Decide to hold quarterly meetings.
• Dates are 2^nd Monday of February, May, August, November.
• John to send invites via Outlook, and reminders via text and email.

Actions:

a) Whole group to network and send suggested planting site ideas to John in the next week. Looking for high profile sites that are already fenced on Kara Road and / or life style blocks and / or sheep and beef farmers.

b) John/Susan to investigate design of a sign combining all collaborators e.g. Mangere Catchment Group, NRC, Enviroschools.

c) John to contact Finnisha to see whether elver transfers are still taking place, and if so, how the catchment group might help.

d) John to follow up with Judith Gatenby and Michael Waymouth (previous planting day with Kokopu School) to see how plants are faring.

Meeting closed at 19:15