Federated Farmers: Farmers work to protect native vegetation

New Zealand's farms have a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal environments, to rivers and hill country.

Among them are examples of our most sensitive ecosystems, including sand dunes, wetlands and bush remnants.

Much of these are privately owned, in fact, nationally, some 23 per cent of remaining native vegetation is in private hands and if your property has one of these areas then this article is pertinent.

Farmers with native vegetation will already know how important it is for wildlife, but natural areas can be good for your farming operation as well. Forest remnants provide shelter, which assists production and weight gain in bad weather.

The presence of bush on the paddock boundary can also significantly increase grass growth.

Someone I spoke to recently said it had reduced rotations from 22 to 18 days. Federated Farmers has long advocated that the best way to protect natural areas is to support landowners in taking care of them.

This is much better than imposing rules and regulations. Thankfully, many councils agree and provide not just advice but in some cases, funding to help farmers keen to improve the management of native vegetation.

Some programmes are proving highly successful.

For example, in Taranaki, councils there have employed an ex-farmer and current QEII National Trust representative, Neil Phillips, to provide free advice to farmers.
This includes information on pest management, even potential financial assistance for fencing to exclude livestock from bush so it can regenerate.

Federated Farmers has been supporting these efforts wherever possible.

More farmers are now working to improve and maintain the condition of their native bush. A very good example being former national president, Bruce Wills.

As a result, regions like Taranaki now face an unexpected but welcome problem; so many Taranaki farmers want to legally protect their native bush that they are generating new applications for QEII covenants at such a rate, that QEII may soon need extra funding to process them.

There is always more that needs doing. The point here is that farmers are actively acting to preserve their bush and without the threat of regulation.

This is not surprising given the greenest people I know happen to be farmers.

If you want further information on what you can do on your own property, please contact your local council, a QEII representative on 04 472 6626 (openspace.org.nz) or your local Federated Farmers' policy officer.