“To help landowners get this year’s planting organised, the Council is again offering a contractor co-ordination service to farmers with Council-prepared riparian (streamside) management plans.”
“We trialled the contractor service last year and the feedback has been good,” says the Council’s Land Services Manager, Don Shearman. “Using four contractors, we got 25,000 plants into the ground in five blocks spread across 30 properties. We did all the organising for the landowners, who paid the contractors directly.” The new service enhances a programme that since the late 1990s has seen more than 2,000 riparian management plans prepared, covering around 11,000 km of streambank. The plans cover the fencing and planting of waterways and are drawn up for landowners at no cost by the Council, which also supplies the plants at cost."
“Good riparian management is essential for protecting and enhancing freshwater quality and we believe farmers should see valuable potential in this new contracting scheme,” says Mr Shearman. “
“Effective riparian buffers enhance water quality by filtering agricultural run-off, and reducing the speed of run-off, which moderates stream flows, reduces flooding and increases baseline flows.
Riparian buffers also provide food and shelter for wildlife and corridors for plants and birds. Streamside vegetation also reduces water temperatures and supplies food for aquatic insects that in turn provide food for fish.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK0902/S00376.htm
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