Whanganui Catchment Strategy July 2016
Endorsed by Council at the Catchment Operations meeting on xxx Author Sarah Nicholson, Environmental Management Officer Land Grant Cooper, Environmental Manager (Land) Acknowledgements to Horizons Regional Council Front Cover Photo Horizons Regional Council July 2016 ISBN: 978-1-927259-58-0 Report No: 2015/EXT/1489 CONTACT 24 hr Freephone 0508 800 800 help@horizons.govt.nz www.horizons.govt.nz SERVICE CENTRES Kairanga Cnr Rongotea and Kairanga-Bunnythorpe Roads Palmerston North Marton Hammond Street Taumarunui 34 Maata Street REGIONAL HOUSES Palmerston North 11-15 Victoria Avenue Wanganui 181 Guyton Street DEPOTS Levin 11 Bruce Road Taihape Torere Road Ohotu Woodville 116 Vogel Street POSTAL ADDRESS Horizons Regional Council, Private Bag 11025, Manawatu Mail Centre, Palmerston North 4442 F 06 9522 929
CONTENTS 1 Introduction 5 1.1 Background 5 1.2 Purpose of the Operational Plan 6 2 Actions and Expenditure 7 2.1 Whanganui Catchment Strategy 7 2.2 Whanganui River Enhancement Trust 8 2.3 Catchment Demonstration Farm 9 2.4 Nursery 11 3 Targets and Summary Expenditure 13 3.1 Summary Expenditure 13 3.2 Targets 13 3.3 Environmental Grant (WCS/WRET) 14 4 Reporting 15 4.1 Bi Monthly 15 4.2 Annual Report 15 5 Appendices 17 5.1 Supporting Maps 17 Whanganui Catchment Strategy
Whanganui Catchment Strategy
1 Introduction 1.1 Background The activities described in this Operational Plan form part of the Catchment Management group of activities in Horizons Long-term Plan 2015-25. Under the Resource Management Act 1991, Horizons has statutory responsibilities to ensure sustainable use and management of the region s land and soil resources. The Whanganui Catchment Strategy (WCS) project relates to the activities introduced in 1997 that focus on the Whanganui River catchment. It aims to prioritise an incentive programme in the area and ultimately the strategy aims to address erosion hot spots that affect downstream water quality. The strategy goals are: To maintain the water quality of the Whanganui River at a standard that protects its cultural and amenity values, and life supporting capacity. To achieve land management that minimises the extent of accelerated soil erosion. The activities link directly to the non-regulatory methods of the One Plan (Chapter 5, Policies 5-1 and 5-5), and more specifically the Whanganui Catchment Strategy is noted as a project under the methods: Project description The aim of this project is to reduce hill country accelerated erosion within the Whanganui catchment. While emphasis is to be on hill country land subject to an elevated risk of accelerated erosion, all land at risk of erosion within the catchment will be eligible for assistance under this programme. Staff from Horizons Regional Council and consultants will work with landowners to develop management plans. These plans will provide the blueprint for long-term environmental, economic and social sustainability. Research, publicity, education, information, and incentives will be used to encourage the landowner or occupier to manage their land in a sustainable manner. Who Horizons Regional Council, Ruapehu District Council and Wanganui District Council, landowners or occupiers, relevant hapu and iwi, the Whanganui River Enhancement Trust (WRET), Department of Conservation, recognised organisations representing farmers and farm consultants. Links to Policy This method links to Policy 5-1. Targets 50% of properties within hill country land subject to an elevated risk of accelerated erosion in the Whanganui Catchment will have a voluntary management plan in place by 2015. Implementation of the land rules of the One Plan will involve Policy 5-2A regarding regulation of vegetation clearance, land disturbance, forestry and cultivation. Whanganui Catchment Strategy 5
Introduction 1.2 Purpose of the Operational Plan This plan aims to set out the scope, work types and targets to be delivered within the approved funding. Scope there are six main work areas within this project: Whole Farm Plans: Continue to provide farm plans, either by internal staff or consultants in the priority areas of the Ohura, Waikaka, Waitewhena and Tokorima catchments. We have cut back on numbers of new plans in recent years as there are few farmers who haven t been contacted to ascertain if they would take up a farm plan; Incentives: Continue to fund environmental works to areas under operational farm plans and erosion hot spots throughout the Whanganui Catchment. Funding from the Whanganui River Enhancement Trust (WRET) is managed to assist this programme; Advice: Continue to provide advice throughout the catchment, as requested from landowners, and be more proactive through active membership of the Taumarunui Sustainable Land Management Group; Nurseries: Funded from the land budget but oversight of nurseries in Taumarunui (depot, Ohura and Manunui), along with any promotion and development of onfarm or new supplies, are managed from this area. Continue to develop three onfarm nurseries in the Ruapehu area with funding support from WRET; One Plan implementation: The land issues regarding cultivation, earth disturbance, vegetation clearance and forestry will require advice and issuing consents. The decision has been made that this work will be carried out and charged within normal operational activities within this budget or the Regional and Coast budget; and Demonstration Farm: In its third year with support from WRET. This farm aims to demonstrate sustainable land use, costs and benefits from environmental works and economic benefits from sustainable land use. Work will continue this year with continuation of the work programme, monitoring of the sediment dams and a field day. Types of work: Staff will provide information, advice and assistance as required. As with the Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI), the work is much more proactive than traditional soil conservation advice. The upper Ohura and Waikaka catchments have been considered priority areas and recently we have added the Waitewhena and Tokorima catchments. In these areas we actively promote farm plans and environmental programmes with grant assistance from WCS and WRET. Targets: Specific targets are set relating to successful engagement with landowners (number of plans, number of grant projects, hectares protected). Currently there are no specific targets relating to catchment outcomes, but as with SLUI, we hope to be able to report catchment outcomes (tonnes of sediment reduction) in the future. Funding: As outlined in the Long-term Plan, this work is to be General Rate funded. Note the storm event of June 2015 caused considerable damage in the lower Whanganui Catchment, and many properties not targeted under the SLUI have issues relating to flood damage, soil erosion, stream bank erosion etc. Small blocks and lifestyle block owners have been seeking advice in larger numbers than in the past. This may result in a short term spike in work programmes with use of grant funding, small plans and advice in these areas. This is, in reality, business as usual but with a higher demand on staff time. 6 Whanganui Catchment Strategy
2 Actions and Expenditure 2.1 Whanganui Catchment Strategy This work continues the pre-slui primary function of the Environmental Management Officers (Land). Traditionally this work was mostly reactive and involved giving advice to landowners about erosion and land use when asked, but since the late 1990s changes have been made by incorporating farm environment plans and priority catchment approaches. Staff have provided advice and information to largely rural landowners and Environmental Grant funds for eligible erosion control, water quality and biodiversity works. Within the Whanganui Catchment work has been delivered via the following approaches: Priority catchment based around sub-catchments of the Ohura River. Research by Horizons and Landcare Research has shown that the Ohura Catchment is the biggest contributor of sediment into the Whanganui River. Further to this it was determined that much of the sediment derived from the Ohura catchment was due to a combination of natural processes from the underlying geology, and land uses that were beyond the inherent capability of the land. The Whanganui Catchment Strategy is focused on matching land use with land type and improving water quality; Within this area the Upper Ohura, Waikaka, Tokorima and Waitewhena areas were identified as priority areas to promote voluntary farm plans, with the aim of encouraging farmers to commit to a planned, long term work programme to reduce erosion. The programme uses Environmental Grant (E-grant) funds from Horizons and WRET to encourage work to be undertaken; Hot spot identification and treatment of erosion. These areas will be treated as a one off erosion problem. The programme uses E-grant funds from Horizons and WRET to encourage work to be undertaken; Develop the Demonstration Farm Plan within the Ohura Catchment (see 2.3); Support and liaise with Biodiversity and Freshwater Teams to ensure advice is consistent and allocation of E-grant funds is appropriate; Provide advice and information to local iwi and hapu on erosion and sustainable land use options. There has been an increased level of interest from these groups over the last 12-18 months; Provide free land use consents (cultivation, earth disturbance and vegetation clearance) to landowners to the protocol signed off by Council; Provide advice to landowners, contractors and forestry consultants around the Permitted Activity status of forestry under the One Plan (noting the proposed National Environmental Standard (NES) for forestry may result in extra work, advice and education for landowners if it is introduced in 2016-17); Provide advice to Consents department regarding any full consent issues around land use; Provide support to other parts of Horizons business more generally in regard to consent and compliance issues in the northern Ruapehu area; and Provide timely advice to ratepayers. Table 1: Summary of Expenditure Internal Hours Staff time 1,020 Whanganui Catchment Strategy 7
Actions and Expenditure Table 2: Overall budget up by $1,907 or 1% from 2015-16 Expenditure Activity External Internal Expenditure $ Expenditure $ Revenue $ Funded By Rate Revenue$ Whanganui Catchment 3,150 101,524 7,000 97,674 E-grant 112,000 62,000 50,000 Photo 1: Proposed wetland retirement and enhancement project (photo S. Nicholson) 2.2 Whanganui River Enhancement Trust Whanganui River Enhancement Trust has been supporting the WCS since 2006. The continued financial support from WRET sends a good message to landowners and renewed focus for staff, with a third party supporting their efforts to undertake environmental works. The WCS programme still enjoys a greater level of acceptance in the Ruapehu area than the SLUI programme. The reporting of works by land type and through mapping work done (recorded in shapefiles and available for reporting) has encouraged staff to be more focused. WRET recognises Horizons as a strategic partner in its 2013-16 Strategic Plan. With WRET support, Horizons will continue to fund environmental works, with grant rates and total grant at higher rates than can be applied by using the Environmental Grant criteria alone as the maximum grant of 30% and $10,000 per proposal does not apply. WRET funding also allows grant money to be spent on environmental works that may not be eligible under Horizons funding, for example some areas of riparian retirement and grant investment on dairy farms. WRET has contributed more than $50,000 annually to support grant projects. This support is subject to an annual application from Horizons to WRET at its Annual General Meeting,, usually in August. There is some risk that if Horizons was not successful in obtaining this funding, we would have to cancel or cut back approvals for some grant projects. 8 Whanganui Catchment Strategy
Actions and Expenditure 2.3 Catchment Demonstration Farm Horizons and WRET continued with the demonstration property within the Ohura Catchment. This project was initiated with a field day and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Horizons, WRET and Evan and Roseanne Parkes, at Matiere, on 23 June 2014. A feild day was held in February 2016 with a speaker highlighting the need for resilience in a changing climate. The programme will continue this year with the same objectives, namely to: Establish a prototype environmental property on a working farm with a usual farm management structure; Set up workable environmental solutions that are farmer-critiqued and established; Hold working field days where landowners can view the establishment of an environmental property on a working farm and view environmental works in action; Establish a working educational process for the Whanganui River Enhancement Trust (WRET) and Horizons Regional Council, to lift the profile of reducing accelerated erosion and sedimentation; Have ongoing maintenance programmes established and undertaken in working situations; and The Horizons staff time to develop and run this programme will be funded from the existing WCS budget. WRET is proposing to fund an extra $35,000 for this case study property over the next three years. Table 3: Summary of Contributions (WRET) Expenditure Activity External Internal Expenditure $ Expenditure $ Revenue $ Funded By Rate Revenue$ WRET Funding to WCS 0 0 3,000 0 Whanganui Catchment Strategy 9
Actions and Expenditure Figure 1: Demonstration farm field day advertisement 10 Whanganui Catchment Strategy
Actions and Expenditure 2.4 Nursery Council owns or leases three pole nurseries at locations in the Ruapehu District (Ohura, Depot, Manunui). Horizons also liaise with a number of local growers to purchase poles from them to on-sell. The poles grown or supplied are made available for E-grant jobs within WCS and SLUI for the Ruapehu District. Currently, pole demand exceeds supply and there is an indication that demand will continue to grow with SLUI and WCS grant funding of projects. The cost of running the nursery is covered under the Regional and Coast section of the Land budget. The staff expertise and advice to third parties comes from the WCS labour budget. WRET have also assisted with the set up funding for up to three private/on-farm nurseries within the priority catchment area. Site one was established in September 2014 and site two in spring 2015. The third site is planned for establishment this spring. The first harvest from site one should occur in winter 2017. Under this proposal, Horizons will continue to provide advice and expertise to help establish and manage the nurseries as well as purchasing the poles grown. WRET will fund a proportion of the set-up costs. Table 4: Summary of Contributions to Nursery development (WRET) Expenditure Activity External Internal Expenditure $ Expenditure $ Revenue $ Funded By Rate Revenue$ WRET Funding to WCS 0 0 4,000 0 Whanganui Catchment Strategy 11
Actions and Expenditure Photos 2 and 3: Mangapapa nursery site preparation, May 2015 (top) as appeared in 2015-16 Operational Plan and photo 3 established poplars April 2016 (photos W. Brown) 12 Whanganui Catchment Strategy
3 Targets and Summary Expenditure 3.1 Summary Expenditure Table 5: Summary of Expenditure Activity External Expenditure $ Expenditure Internal Expenditure $ Revenue $ Funded By Rate Revenue$ Whanganui Catchment 3,339 99,428 95,767 E-grant 50,000 50,000 WRET E-grant 62,000 62,000 WRET case study 0 3,000 WRET nursery 0 4,000 Total 115,339 99,428 69,000 145,767 3.2 Targets Realistic targets are difficult to set for activities that involve a mix of promotion, information, advice and assistance. The following Operational Plan targets have been set, with the Annual Plan targets highlighted in bold font. Table 6: Summary of Targets Activity Operational Plan and Annual Plan targets Targets 1. Produce two WCS plans per year 2. Manage E-grant programme to carry out 25 projects or spend all the grant allocation ($50,000 plus WRET $53,000) 3. Target 150 ha of land improvement projects through E-grant assistance 4. Carry out the agreed WRET programme and supply an Annual Report to WRET 5. Provide bi monthly reports to Catchment Operations Committee of Council 6. Provide copies of bi monthly reports to WRET on request 7. Provide a minimum of two progress reports to WRET 8. Continue demonstration farm with at least one field day by 30 June 2017 9. Manage consent process for land use consents within Whanganui Catchment; if consent is required, to be produced within five working days 10. Visit every WCS farm plan landowner at least once per year 11. Sell all poles produced from council nursery 12. Grow pole production from Taumarunui/Ruapehu wider supply (to be more self-sufficient) 13. Develop one new nursery with funding assistance from WRET. Whanganui Catchment Strategy 13
Targets and Summary Expenditure 3.3 Environmental Grant (WCS/WRET) Funding of work programmes is provided through the E-grant Programme (E- grant). The aim of the E-grant is to support and encourage work to be done on erodible land. In providing grant money Horizons can influence the work carried out in a number of ways: At the base level the grant may provide the impetus to get some work done; It may encourage farmers to do more or complete programmes at a faster rate; and It may offer enough incentive to improve the technical quality of the work, through planting at appropriate spacing, use of better species, greater setbacks, etc. In the past E-grant funding through the Land team has supported a mix of works in a variety of landforms (biodiversity, water quality, erosion control on dairy, sheep and other farm types or land uses). Under the WCS a specific E-grant fund of $50,000 has been put aside for works within the catchment that will meet the WCS objectives. WCS/WRET E-grant projects carried out in 2015-16 included: 62 project applications (9 cancelled, 2 transferred to 2016-17, 2 to resilience funding and 1 to SLUI); If all 58 projects went ahead a grant allocation of $125,510 would have been required; 48 projects were completed at a grant cost of $73,756; The grant costs were funded by Horizons and WRET; and 49 projects resulted in approximately 1,676 trees planted, 2,009 poles, 19.9 km of fencing, and 146 ha of area protected. The Operational Plan target of 150 ha was met, there is a discrepancy between the Operational Plan and Annual Plan target, the Annual Plan target was 200 ha. The WCS E-grant projects for 2016-17 have the same grant allocation of $50,000 and it is anticipated this will be supplemented by $62,000 from WRET. Management of the allocation of funds is always a delicate balance in order not to over-approve and have more funds requested than available, against the knowledge that some jobs do not go ahead and there are often savings in jobs that are approved. The support of WRET allows Horizons more flexibility in spreading the grant allocation within the WCS. The rules around allocation are: The work types eligible for grant funding are limited and outlined in protocols. If work does not fit these protocols but still has an environmental benefit, then WRET funding may be utilised; The grant rate for Horizons share is to be up to 30%. In exceptional circumstances this can be exceeded but only with sign off of a senior officer. WRET funding can be added to this grant rate for jobs that have a direct benefit to water quality, those best meeting WRET objectives; The maximum grant allocation per project is $10,000 and WRET funding can be added; Approved projects will be paid out on actual and reasonable grant cost up to but not exceeding the approved amount; First priority for approval goes to projects with a WSC farm plan and secondly to identified erosion hot spot areas. This supports WRET s requirement for priority to be in the Ohura Catchment; and At 18 July 2016, 31 projects had been approved with an estimated grant allocation of $58,496. 14 Whanganui Catchment Strategy
4 Reporting 4.1 Bi Monthly Reporting to the Catchment Operations Committee, these reports would provide an update of the progress against the targets as agreed in this Operational Plan (or as presented in the Annual Plan). The report would also include a general update on activities being undertaken and any new issues as they arise. Additional reporting is carried out for the WRET (Whanganui River Enhancement Trust). 4.2 Annual Report A report against Annual Plan targets only. Whanganui Catchment Strategy 15
Reporting 16 Whanganui Catchment Strategy
5 Appendices 5.1 Supporting Maps Map 1: Land Management Zones Whanganui Catchment Strategy 17
Appendices Map 2: Location of environmental-grants 18 Whanganui Catchment Strategy
Map 3: Work Types Whanganui Catchment Strategy 19
Appendices Map 4: WCS Works 2006-2015 20 Whanganui Catchment Strategy