Whanganui landowners grappling with cost of protecting waterways

Planting and fencing along streams prevents livestock from entering waterways and stops soil erosion.

Tight budgets are causing rural landowners to turn down opportunities to prevent soil run-off into rivers.

Federated Farmers executive member Mike Cranstone, of Whanganui, said the ability for farmers to do work such as fencing off creeks and planting native trees would be a stretch due to “incredibly tight budgets”.

“That is because farmers have to front up with [the] majority of the funding.”

There is currently funding available for rural communities through Horizons Regional Council’s Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI).

Horizons offers SLUI grants and freshwater funding that cover 30-50 per cent of the cost of work that targets erosion and prevents sediment from getting into waterways.

The money covers preventative measures such as stream fencing, installing sediment traps and reverting pasture to native cover on hill country.

“The real concern for farmers is that we actually really enjoy seeing native trees growing around fenced-off creeks, but our ability to do that work is going to be reduced.”

Horizons catchment manager Dr Jon Roygard said the key issue for the Whanganui River was sedimentation - where soil run-off gets into waterways.

“That’s why this work to try to hold the soil on the ground is so important. So, trying to keep the soil on farms is a really key part of helping the awa.”

In Whanganui, erosion control work across 16,000 hectares was completed through the SLUI programme, which began in 2006.

He said over the past four years, that work had accelerated: “It’s really been well-supported and well-invested-in by landowners.”

But Cranstone said farmers’ tight budgets would be magnified by the compliance costs of farm plans.

“What’s of even greater concern is that with the implementation of plans being compulsory for farmers, it’s looking like they’re going to cost in excess of $20,000 per farm.”

That was money that would go to consultants to write up a plan rather than actual work to improve the environment, he said.

Central government co-funding via the Jobs for Nature fund is scheduled to end by July 1, 2024.

Roygard said he encouraged landowners to “take up the opportunity while there is still funding available”.

All parts of the catchment would be vulnerable to erosion, but some more than others, he said.

Sediment made its way into rivers through natural processes such as running through riverbeds, but it also came off farms and Department of Conservation land, he said.

There were “definite benefits” to the scale the SLUI was operating on, with 500 grants given to landowners annually.

Stopping stock access had a fairly immediate impact on waterways, but longer-term initiatives such as sediment control took time to produce results, Roygard said.

“Trees need to grow and get to being an effective height and age.”

Landowners interested in SLUI or freshwater funding can call Horizons’ Land Management team on free phone 0508 800 800.

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.