Puketoi Station owner Emma Crutchley sits on Cogan's Bridge in the Maniototo. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
Puketoi Station owner Emma Crutchley sits on Cogan's Bridge in the Maniototo. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
The Upper Taieri Scroll Plain is home to several native birds, fish and vegetation. Southern Rural Life's Shawn McAvinue talks to Maniototo farmer Emma Crutchley about how she believes a proposal for new freshwater rules will have an unintentionally negative environmental impact on the scroll plain.
A Maniototo Basin farmer fears proposed new freshwater rules will remove an important tool used to protect a unique scroll plain.
Puketoi Station owner Emma Crutchley said her nearly 3000ha sheep, beef and arable farm was often dry.
About 350mm of rain fell each year on the farm, which is about a 20-minute drive southwest of Ranfurly.
When it tips down, the overflow of the meandering Taieri River transforms a low-lying area of her farm into a "large, slow-moving lake".
The body of water, featuring lagoons and U-shaped oxbow pools, was part of the about 3500ha Upper Taieri Scroll Plain, including the Styx Basin upstream.
"It's the largest of its kind in New Zealand."
About a tenth of the scroll plain lies on her farm.
A scroll plain mitigated the impact of a flood downstream, she said.
"It stops a whole slug of water, which doesn't hit downstream until days later because it takes so much time to get through the Styx and the Maniototo scroll plains."
Unlike a wetland, the scroll plain was ephemeral; as the level of the river level dropped, so did the water levels in the scroll.
In dry times, water in the scroll returned to replenish the river, maintaining its flow and natural values, she said.
During drought, the Taieri River was often low enough to walk across in gumboots and the scroll plain was "bone dry".
When the scroll plain was dry, her cattle ate exotic plant species, which included willow seedlings and grass species, such as cocksfoot and tall fescue.
If the scroll plain was left alone, these plants would clog it, as they had on the property on the other side of the river from her farm, she said.
"It is a telling story."
Pests on the scroll plain, such as white geese and wild pigs, were regularly controlled by contractors.
If the scroll plain was overgrown, it would give pests a place to hide from the contractors that shot from helicopters.
She was concerned the new proposed freshwater rules, designed to protect wetlands and streams, would prevent her from being able to have cattle graze in the area.
The rotational grazing of cattle was a way to control plant pest species and complement native plant species on the scroll plain, that sheep were unable to control.
"It's a tool we have in the toolbox."
Puketoi Station owner Emma Crutchley pats her heading dog Libby near an oxbow lake on an Upper Taieri River Scroll Plain on her farm in the Maniototo Basin. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
The environmental impacts of cattle lightly grazing parts of the scroll plain would be lighter than controlling weeds by blanket-spraying them with herbicide.
Grazing cattle on the scroll plain had an economic benefit for her business, but her motivation was about preserving the scroll plain for future generations, including her children and grandchildren.
"I want them to be able to benefit from the environment, the way we did.
"This is not about maintaining something for its economic value - it's about the ecological outcomes of a national framework."
According to the Otago Regional Council website, the scroll plain was a habitat for native fish including longfin eel, lamprey and non-migratory galaxiids.
Native waterfowl which breed in the scroll included shoveller, grey teal, grey duck and South Island pied oystercatcher, the website said.
Under the new rules, the scroll plain would be defined as a wetland, but it was different from a wetland and required a different approach, Crutchley said.
"[The Government's] implementing something designed to preserve our environment, when the impact is the opposite."
The classification as a wetland would make it harder to protect the scroll plain.
Since launching, the group has been a recipient of a Ministry for the Environment Green Ribbon Award.
Speaking on her own behalf, rather than for the group, she said she hoped a plan could be created that included the vision and values of the community.
A plan would give the community ownership of the issue and investigate suitable stocking rates to control weeds and maintain native vegetation in the scroll plain, and determine which areas should be fenced off.
Stock should be kept out of some parts of the scroll plain, such as areas that did not dry up, creating "biodiversity corridors", and maintaining the natural character of the scroll plain, so it could continue to benefit this community.
The plan would allow the community to work with the council to develop something with meaningful outcomes.
"So everyone has ownership of the solutions and we get better outcomes for future generations."
The council was restricted by the rules in a national direction.
"They are the meat in the sandwich."
Wetlands needed to be protected but the narrative needed to move from central government driving a one-size-fits-all set of rules to focus on outcomes, giving communities a chance to build a solution.
"At the moment were are hamstrung by the national framework."
A Ministry for the Environment spokesman said the proposed new rules were covered under the Resource Management (Stock Exclusion) Regulations 2020, regulations 16-18.
Regulation 16, which comes into effect on July 1 next year states all stock must be excluded from any natural wetland, which was identified in a regional or district plan or a regional policy statement, which was operative on September 2020.
Regulation 17 states all stock must be excluded from natural wetlands, which support a threatened species.
Regulation 18 states all stock on low-slope land must be excluded from any natural wetland bigger than 0.05ha.
Both regulations 17 and 18 come into effect from July 1, 2025.
The regulations did not apply to sheep, he said.
"We have proposed amendments to the definition of a 'natural wetland' as part of wider amendments to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 and the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater 2020, including an adjustment to the existing pasture exclusion, and this will affect where stock need to be excluded."
Upper Taieri River Scroll Plain
The Upper Taieri River Scroll Plain is a large natural wetland in the centre of the Maniototo and Styx Basins.
A scroll plain is a flood plain with a meandering river that changes its course during flooding, leaving ox-bow lakes and depressions that hold water for varying periods of time.
The Upper Taieri River Scroll Plain is New Zealand's best example of such a meandering river.
