Family's contribution to lake's wellbeing

Shane and June Birchall and son Daniel in the wetland built on their property to help improve Lake Okaro. Picture / Alan Gibson

June and Shane Birchall gave up 2ha of their Rotorua farm to help save the lakes.

"We just felt it was the right thing to do," Mrs Birchall said yesterday.

The patch of land on the shores of Lake Okaro is now a wetland and home to an array of birdlife.

"It's definitely added to the scenic side of things," Mrs Birchall said.

But the 14 species of bird that have appeared since the wetland was officially opened in February are really just a bonus.

Constructed by Environment Bay of Plenty, the wetland's main purpose is to improve water quality at the polluted lake.

Like Rotorua's other lakes, Okaro suffers from an excess of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous.

Wetlands act as filters of these nutrients, which cause toxic algal blooms and make the water unsafe for swimming.

Construction of the 2.3ha wetland, built on the Birchalls' land and reserve, began a year ago.

Paddocks were dug out to create shallow ponds, which were then covered with truckloads of sawdust and topsoil to help in the filtering process.

The planting of 60,000 native plants began in September and the wetland was opened on World Wetland Day on February 3.

John McIntosh, project co-ordinator at Environment Bay of Plenty, said it would take a couple of years for the plants to get established.

The Birchalls, whose family have farmed the area for four generations, are also adopting farming practices they hope will save the lake.

Mr Birchall said they had reduced fertiliser use on their 250ha farm and milked their 400 cows only once a day, measures aimed at reducing nutrient run-off.

The couple had also begun using "standing pads", or fenced-off areas to keep the cows in in bad weather, which limited the amount of nutrients the animals released into topsoil that was easily picked up by heavy rain.

"We still want to be here in 25 years," Mr Birchall said.

"We've got to utilise all the science to make sure we are still farming."