Pause for Applause

Every now and again we come across something that we think is just great. When we do we’re going to tell people about it.

Part of my role is to provide advice to landowners who have covenanted ecological features on their properties. Sometimes it’s to congratulate them on good work, mostly it’s to guide them on what to do and how to do it, and sometimes it’s to be the bad cop when they aren’t doing what they should.

Every now and again, we come across someone who has gone above and beyond and today was one of those days. This landowner has a steep gully of remnant native forest that has been protected. The drop off into the gully is steep and it’s a prime site for slips and slumps with a number of overland flow paths that come down through the paddocks. If that was to happen it would create a significant disturbance in the bush and open it up to invasive pest plants. Repairing things in that scenario are very difficult, expensive and fraught with challenges.

Today I was out on site and I saw that the landowner had installed a extra buffer right where the flow path was. He’s put in a good quality fence with a hot wire and filled it with a good selection of native plants. In particular, he put in high density carex secta and flaxes. These do a great job at capturing sediment and attenuating water flow. Given the truly exceptional rain events we have had in the last few of months, this type of project will have been a massive help in stabilizing the area and avoiding the type of issues that we are seeing across the motu.

Truth is, fencing like this is a bit of work but he’d gone and done it because he recognized the value of the assets that he has, both the native bush and his great pasture land.

Hats off to you, Dave, great work.

Flattened pasture grass showing the overland flow path that enters into, and is trapped and slowed by, carex and harakeke.