Conservation Comment: A clear shortage of evidence

Brian Doughty

I WROTE of the disappointing headline that "Fish and Game felt blindsided" it had not known the Government was going to overhaul the Resource Management Act.

There were statements like they would have never become part of the so-called "Team Green" on the Land and Water Forum had they known of the pending changes.

Heading into 2017, it would appear not a lot has changed for Fish and Game.

If anything, it seems to have got worse as far as water quality is concerned -- that is, if you believe all of the publicity surrounding this issue.

To me this debate centres around finding a balance between the economic and environmental issues from any form of agriculture.

In general terms, without a rural industry our national income would see a much lower standard of living for us all. On the other hand, without some form of environmental protection for our land and waterways we could end up with water that not even the animals would drink, so where does this leave us?

Well, we have one group telling us we're not doing enough to clean up our waterways, while the other group is trying to convince us the water is all good by standing in some creek while drinking the water. For the moment, let's presume it's from the creek they are standing in -- a bit risky, I thought.

Let's start with the "not enough being done" group. As I understand, a bucket-load of work has been done and continues to be done in an attempt to mitigate rural run-off to streams and rivers by landowners and local authorities in priority catchments, along with research, science and trials, in an attempt to clean up our rivers and streams.

What is missing is credible publicity on how this is happening and if it's successful or unsuccessful in the short term -- standing in a creek doesn't do it for me or many others, I suggest.

Now for the water-swilling creek dwellers: I'm not sure what they wanted to portray to the general public, but I thought E. coli and nitrates were pretty hard to see in water. Maybe you just have to wait for that "crook guts" feeling to hit you.

Surely if you need to make an impact for the public at large on improving water quality, what's wrong with showing water-quality test results before and after, completed by an independent laboratory, or photos of groups of landowners fencing and completing their riparian plantings and showing successful plantings done to date? The dairy industry talks of thousands of kilometres of riparian fencing being completed. Show some outside verification, as you might find not a big percentage of Joe Public believes the industry giants on these issues.

We do need to find a balance sooner rather than later, so let's start listening to the other side before it's too late.

�Brian Doughty is a farmer and cheesemaker and is Federated Farmers' Whanganui dairy chairman.