Placing catchment communities in the Ashburton District at the centre of decisions and direction on biodiversity, water quality and the environment is now possible thanks to the Mid Canterbury Catchment Collective (MCCC). Formed just over a year ago, the collective promises to deliver greater horsepower and strategic direction for the multiple and diverse catchment groups that have formed in the region over the past decade.
Collective co-ordinator Angela Cushnie is part of a high performing team supporting catchment groups to start-up and plan their goals. Alongside the MCCC committee, made up of farmers, rural professionals and catchment group members, Angela works with a team of facilitators to leverage the many talents contained within Mid Canterbury.
“What we are aiming for is to help groups avoid re-inventing the wheel when it comes to specific catchment projects and monitoring programmes members may wish to initiate. That may include having a template we circulate for water monitoring projects, or biodiversity enhancement. It means as a collective we can get far more strategic about who is doing what, for what purpose, and ensure we are all working collaboratively,” says Angela.
Nationally community-led catchment groups have started to get the ear of government, with ministers taking greater notice of the initiatives they have started, and acknowledging the role the groups can play in helping central government improve outcomes around the likes of biodiversity, water quality and healthy soils and nutrient loss mitigation.
Last year saw Agriculture Minister Damien O’connor acknowledging groups, with the investment of $610,000 over three years into the Hakataramea Sustainability Collective in the Hakataramea Valley.
This came on top of the $8.4 million already allocated to support catchment groups and Rural Community Hubs across the wider Canterbury region by government. To date there have been investments in over 170 farmer-led catchment groups around New Zealand with the support of Ministry for Primary Industry, DairyNZ, Beef and Lamb and Foundation for Arable Research.
MCCC’s boundaries extend from the mountains to the sea, between the Rangitata and Rakaia rivers, containing some of the country’s most diverse land uses, soil types and environmental challenges. The vision is that approximately 14 individual catchment groups will be captured under the collective’s umbrella but early days still as MCCC focus on creating an approach that is enduring, inter-generational and sustainable.
“For example, in the lowlands Hinds district there can be a sense we are the canaries in the coal mine for actions further upstream where freshwater springs and tributaries contribute into the Hinds River. Under MCCC we can co-operatively work on solutions, determining how we are going to approach the problems.”
“This type of approach rather than finger pointing, blaming and only seeing the problems, puts communities and people at the centre of a solution-focused journey which is where meaningful change happens.”
Linking research with farmers
Angela said she had been struck at the disconnect and lack of collaboration between much of the research being done on farm environmental challenges and those at the coal face. Under a collective umbrella it will become possible to commission and guide research focused on farm and catchment solutions specific to the catchments those problems present themselves in.
She has been particularly struck by the success the longer established Thriving Southland catchment group has enjoyed, with well-founded scientific approaches helping underpin a better relationship between researchers and farmers seeking solutions.
“I have to admit to being super jealous of what they have achieved working with Dr Clint Rissman, founder of research group Land and Water Science. His work has focused on using the science of physical geography, known as physio-graphics to evaluate and determine water quality in catchments. As a practice it has done much to combine the often-siloed disciplines of soil, geology, hydrology and biochemistry (see article on Thriving Southland).”
Often the knowledge imparted by scientific experts when done properly can do much to unlock aspects of land management farmers may well have had for some time, but simply had not had the science to ground truth and support their beliefs.
“If they can be told the ‘why’ behind it, it helps add value to that science, and motivate a change in approach with greater understanding of why certain outcomes are important.”
No one size fits all approach
She says future research projects proposed by the collective will take a ‘pragmatic’ approach, with some groups more focused upon establishing water quality monitoring programmes while others will be aiming for a better understanding of soil health, hydrology and aquifers, for example.
While much of the central government’s regulations around water quality, biodiversity and soon greenhouse gases have been captured in policy settings, Angela says a strong collective will have the ability to positively influence the pace of change.
“I think most groups from across communities tend to want the same thing, improved environmental outcomes, and broadly agree with the direction of travel – it’s important we can have an influence on the pace of the changes. With over a century of urban and rural modification of our landscape, there is no point in being told something has to be done in ten years when community catchments are questioning the feasibility, it’s just setting people up to fail.”
Angela is encouraged by what she sees as a less combative approach between community groups about achieving environmental outcomes these days.
“I think by and large there is a genuine willingness to work together as we have realised we largely want the same outcomes. In some cases that will seem too slow, for others it’s coming too soon.”
Southland a model to help MCCC thrive
Further south, the Thriving Southland catchment collective may provide an invaluable guide to what Canterbury catchment groups could aspire to, and achieve, under their Mid Canterbury Catchment Collective initiative.
Thriving Southland was created with input from Ministry for Primary Industries’ productive and sustainable land use programme after the value of farmer catchment groups was acknowledged by Minister for Agriculture Damien O’Connor back in 2021.
Over $25 million has been invested in catchment groups by government since 2020, as their value in helping support farmers developing detailed farm environment plans was recognised.
Now in its third year of life, Thriving Southland has 33 individual catchment groups under its wing, accounting for about 85% of the region’s land area.
One of those catchment groups is Wendonside Catchment Group covering 27,000ha spanning from Dome Burn Creek and the Mataura River, down to the confluence of the Waikaia and Mataura rivers.
Wendonside group chair Rob Dingle says the catchment groups have always been driven from the ground up, manned by volunteer farmers keen to seek solutions to problems at a farm level.
This was often at stark odds to central government plans that have attempted to bring a “top down” regulatory approach to environmental management. His own group has been going for almost four years and claims an exceptional 85% engagement by farmers in its zone.
“Thriving Southland has been good in that it has provided resources to manage the administration of catchment groups, something many trip over on because it is a lot of (voluntary) work involved by people also trying to run their farm businesses.”
With a team of staff resourced, they are able to help guide groups through the funding steps for projects, get projects going, and do a good job of informing all groups about what is going on across the entire region.”
Those communications also include regular updates via the Thriving Southland You Tube channel.
Rob says prior to Thriving Southland’s formation many catchment groups had some good ideas but did tend to be a “bit random” in execution.
“You had a situation where groups were forming and then floundering, some flew, and some did not. Thriving Southland put some structure around things. Today we have 33 catchment groups, compared to 15 a few years ago.”
A level of accountability for success or otherwise of projects is also provided by Thriving Southland’s ties to MPI.
He maintains the $4 million invested in the group is not a great deal in context of what it can achieve across such a significant, productive agricultural region.
His own group has been participating in a cutting-edge farm mapping project working with Dr Clint Rissman whose company is Land and Water Science. The mapping project is providing granular, paddock level data on individual farms’ environmental impact through physiographic or multi-disciplinary scientific analysis and mapping.
“A lot of policy has been formed in the past on historic science, or with massive gaps in knowledge, possibly only using a few sampling sites to base that policy on.
“These are simply not accurate or bespoke enough to reflect individual farms’ characteristics and responses to environmental challenges, yet all farms can end up being effected by the same rule regardless.”
In the Wendonside catchment there are now 43 water sampling sites across the 30,000ha, providing far more detailed, relevant, and informed information to farmer members.
“And incidentally that water quality is generally very good.”
The information and individual farm maps Dr Rissman’s system can create means farmers are getting a “layer cake” picture of their farm, with more detailed breakdowns of physical properties and with that more relevant, specific solutions to help improve their farm’s environmental footprint.
“This has also been helped by another project aided by Thriving Southland that has the soils being re-mapped, based on latest science rather than that done in the 60s and 70s.”
“On our farm for example a Mataura silt loam that was thought of as free draining has been reclassified, with quite different drainage qualities.”
Having such proprietary information paid for by Thriving Southland and catchment members has empowered farmers when it comes to discussions with regulators.
As farm environment plans become standard, tailored farm data ensures those plans will be precise and relevant, rather than devolving into a simple “one size fits all” box ticking exercise.
Having dairy farmed in Mid-Canterbury and being very familiar with its particular challenges, Rob is confident the Thriving Southland model is a very transferable template for MCCC.
“You only get engagement from farmers when they are recognised as holding the answers, and you have to provide them with robust data that is relevant to them, not just to their district or region.”
Five years ago, the Wendonside group was formed to “fight tooth and nail” for their farming viability amid new regulations.
“We were very much ‘gloves on’. We are now in a position of ‘gloves off’. We have the funds and the data and in fact have the council coming to us, keen to see the data. We are at the table helping design and determine regulations.”
“Councils and politicians may change, but the science does not. But without Thriving Southland nothing would really have happened, no one has got the money.”
Catchment projects in motion
The Mid Canterbury Catchment Collective (MCCC) has kicked off with some ground-breaking projects already well underway to provide resources and knowledge for the collective’s members to draw from.
The Hekeao Hinds Hill Country catchment group has a wetland project already well established on co-chair Nick France’s property near Mount Somers.
With 18ha of native wetland species already planted, Nick says the project is helping highlight how wetland restoration and protection is a “quality not quantity” journey, one that takes time, money, and many hours of labour input.
“We would have spent thousands of hours on clearing and planting, with about 6000 natives that have been selected scientifically on the basis they are best suited to this location. It is an intensive process, it’s not cheap, and requires total commitment.”
He said belonging to the MCCC means his catchment group will get greater leverage by pooling resources and knowledge, and hopefully a louder voice when working with local council and government.
Fellow catchment group co-chair Harley Davies has been engaged in an aquifer recharge project on his 1187ha property, and is another catchment project drawing strong farmer, government, and council interest in its outcomes.
Harley and Neroli’s Gawler Downs farm is the site of a near river recharge (NRR) project. This essentially provides a clean water top up to a target river system when flows are low.
Other trials also include managed aquifer recharge sites on the Plains using clean surface water trickling into groundwater to help clean the ground water and spring system connected to it.
The work on the Davies’ property also includes wetland reconstruction and planting about 10,000 native plants. Water quality, river flow, ground water level and fish populations have all shown improvements over the last four years.
Phill Everest who along with his son Phillip was the recipient of the esteemed Gordon Stevenson Trophy for the 2022 Ballance Farm Environment Awards farms in the Hinds catchment and welcomes the MCCC’s formation.
“The key for us is it means we can all work collaboratively. It can be hard for small catchment groups to know what is going on above and below their area, and hard to make changes if what is happening above you in the catchment is not changing too.”
“It is all about us collectively putting our time, energy and money into it as a community, to learn and share what we do and to ensure we don’t all make the same mistakes.”