The council's Eco Fund started the project with $12,000, allowing them to buy plants and hire a digger which a neighbour worked on for a week clearing the gorse. Then they called in pupils from Five Forks School to help plant 2500 plants.
Since then, they have been granted a further $18,000 from MPI's Jobs for Nature fund to complete the entire length of the project, creating a walkway alongside the river, and allowing public access along the full length. They will complete the planting this spring.
"It's really satisfying to go down and see what's there now. Anyone can come out and access the river at any point," Jane, who has driven the project, said.
The couple have been on the farm for 15 years after they moved south in 2006, leaving behind their corporate jobs in Christchurch.
At that stage, Jane's parents, Murray and Lynne Isbister, were talking about converting the farm at Five Forks, which had been a run-off for their dairy farm at Papakaio.
The couple started out working for the Isbisters and quickly moved to lower order sharemilking, then 50:50, before buying the farm within five years.
They started out with a very small herd made up of Murray's favourite Holstein Friesians.
"We bought a few pedigree cows that were carryovers and we grew the herd organically, milking all year round," Jane said.
Fifteen years later, Lyndon now focused on giving back to the community and helping other new farmers find their feet.
The couple milk off 150ha of the 290ha farm and use the rest of the land as support.
Now spring calving, the 420-strong herd averages about 485kg/MS per cow but the Strangs are aiming for 500kg/MS per cow this season. They will increase cow numbers to 460 for next season.
Jane said her father had been a breeder for 50 years and they were proud to carry it on.
She selected the bulls and did all the AI for the herd every season.
"With every calf born we want it to have value, so, for that to happen, we want to choose the best genetics we can," she said.
The herd was founded from the Ronnoco and Riverbrae studs in the early 1970s and Jane said they use mainly CRV genetics.
Among their best producers are Muritai Firenze Wynsordaughters. Three feature in their top 10 high producers.
Another line of high producers are daughters of CRV Delta Ireland. One of his daughters record 735kg/MS in 250 days.
They sell any 4-day-old bulls for calf rearing or raise them to 100kg themselves.
"Because we have a Friesian herd, the beef buyers like it because they know they get a decent-sized animal," Lyndon said.
He said their passion and focus was on having a sustainable farm for generations.
That was why they had also become so involved in the discussion about water quality and the political side of farming.
Lyndon was previously the dairy chairman of North Otago Federated Farmers and helped resurrect the North Otago Sustainable Land Management Group (Noslam).
"We can see dairy farming has a great future, but there are a few things that need to be fixed and were happy to go out there and poke our heads above the parapet and say we'll have a go at some of these things."
They have also taken on sharemilkers on the farm, Craig and Amy Kingan,and the couple were keen to help them on the pathway to farm ownership.
"It's how we've been able to move into a lot of the volunteer work we've been doing.
"We're trying to set ourselves up for a strong future, the whole community and North Otago," Jane said.
