On-Stream


Hope you are all keeping warm now that winter has well and truly kicked in. At least the days are about to get longer again.

As we mentioned briefly in our last issue of On-Stream, we will launch our new community grant scheme, ECO Fund (Environment. Community. Otago) on 31 July, with our first funding round later this year. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page.

Our water quality plan change for minimum flows is now underway. You can head to YourSay for more information and to register for updates.

Congratulations to Tony Livingston, who won the Forestry Environmental Management Excellence award sponsored by ORC at the Southern Wood Council Forestry Awards held in Dunedin recently. Tony is exceeding expectations in adopting environmentally-friendly practices in his workplace forestry operations - well done!


Happy reading,
The ORC team

 
Feature: Rabbits in Otago
With much interest surrounding Otago's rabbit problem and the recent release of the RHDV1 K5 virus, we are excited to see some positive results coming in.

We're part way through night counts, with many sites showing a decrease in rabbit numbers. The average reduction so far is almost 30%, which is in line with our expectations.

Landcare Trust have also been conducting some great research on the K5 virus and its effectiveness in the Otago and Canterbury regions. 

Check out their video on the science behind RHDV1-K5 here.

                           

 
 
Updates from your liaison specialists
Bruce Monaghan - Central Otago
 

Here is a recap of progress to date for replacing deemed permits.

Presentations to groups have covered three fundamental themes:

  1. Technical preparation in relation to the use of their water 
  2. Consideration of aquatic values and agreed residual flows with affected parties
  3. Group-managed water protocols for water sharing during lower flows

Technical preparation and the need to agree on residual flows is now well understood by most groups, however, determination of agreed residuals for a number of streams has been put on hold because of the lack of fish data. 

The ORC-funded fish survey will help move this along. Stay tuned for the July issue of On-Stream to find out more about the additional fish data, which will be available on the ORC fish and flow portal by then.
 
Group-managed water protocols is still lagging with most groups. It can be an enormous challenge to get these up and running, depending on the number of takes per catchment.     

It is important for groups to have contact with a consultant through all three phases, especially when it comes to establishing water sharing regimes 

While deemed permits need to be replaced by 1 October 2021, we recommend they need to be lodged by 1 November 2020, and at the very latest by 1 April 2021.

Nicole Foote - Strath Taieri & Central Coast Otago

nicole.foote@orc.govt.nz
027 564 7788

I’m dedicating my limited daylight hours to working through feedback received from the last Tomahawk community vision workshop. We are looking forward to pulling community input into projects which we can share and dissect at a meeting later in the year.
 

ORC attended the Catchment Group workshop facilitated by the NZ Landcare Trust at Invermay last week. The day showed the different approaches to catchment management between groups, and also highlighted the common themes that developed along their journey. We have lots of information and observations which we look forward to sharing with our colleagues with an eye to future possibilities.
 

Lastly from me, just a reminder that with intensive grazing of crop paddocks you will likely require proactive measures to keep stock from waterways to remain within the permitted activity rule. At this time of year, this includes ephemeral streams and a gold star to those who extend the practice to swales and other wet/boggy bits. ORC and the Otago community appreciate the extra time, resource and walking this requires during this already busy time.

Chantal Whitby - South Otago

chantal.whitby@orc.govt.nz 
027 558 7551

Well, it seems that winter has definitely let us know it is here!

I began to get a bit worried that the predicted snow a couple of weeks ago might prevent people from being able to make it to the second Lake Tuakitoto workshop in Kaitangata.

Fortunately, the snow held off and we had a great turnout from the community. Thanks to all of those who were able to come along and contribute their ideas on the night.

There was some great discussion around what the community would like to see for the future of the lake. For those of you who weren’t able to make either of the two workshops we've held, we will put a link up on the ORC website soon on our ‘YourSay’ page, which will allow people to give further feedback on the project.

If you would like to know more about this or would like to be added to the mailing list please send me an email.
 

James White - North Otago

james.white@orc.govt.nz
027 286 5342

A rare week of Scottish mist and intermittent rainfall has left the land pretty boggy in North Otago.

You need to think very carefully about how best to graze your winter crops to avoid sediment and nutrients leaving the paddock and getting into waterways.

This is an issue that ORC continues to be concerned about and is an area that our compliance team will be targeting over the winter months. Do it right and you’ll have no issues.

For some good tips and tricks go to: https://www.dairynz.co.nz/feed/crops/wintering-cows-on-crops/

 

ORC has been getting plenty of positive feedback from landowners in the Shag catchment about our Good Water Project trial, which is happening at the moment. The independent consultant we have employed to visit farms over 10ha in size in the Shag River catchment has been doing a great job.

The farm visits are not related to compliance or enforcement. The visits are by landowner invitation and focus on helping understand any risks a farming operation may have under the Otago Water Plan rules.

The assessment will not only help landowners, but  will also help ORC to refine our Good Water Project before rolling it out across Otago.

We want to make sure it will provide maximum benefit for both Otago’s landowners and water quality. It’s a win-win!

 
 
 
 
In Brief
Water take data needed by 31 July
A reminder to please get water take data to us by 31 July for those whose telemetry isn’t sent to ORC daily. The data should cover the year from 1 July 2017 – 30 June 2018. If no abstraction has occurred then the records you supply should reflect this, i.e. a downloaded data logger file with zeros for each day. Please email your data to watermetering@orc.govt.nz

River-Estuary Care: Waikouaiti-Karitane

Check out the new River-Estuary Care website here for some inspiration from the amazing things the Waikouaiti and Karitane community have achieved by working together. 
 
SIDE
ORC is a silver sponsor of the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE), which is on 25 and 26 June at the Dunedin Town Hall. If you're going, look out for our liasion specialists Nicole and James, who will be there to chat with you and answer any queries you have. 

What's coming up?

For a full list of events click here.

June

25 & 26 - South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) Dunedin Town Hall

July

31 July - Environment. Community. Otago. ECO Fund launch

31 July - Deadline for getting water take data to ORC. Please email watermetering@orc.govt.nz
 
TBC
Third workshop for Tomahawk Lagoon restoration
Third workshop for Lake Tuakitoto restoration
ORC’s ten-year (long-term) plan to be adopted
 
 
The winter issue of ORC's newsletter 'Waterlines' is out now. You can read it here.
 
If you know someone who should subscribe to On-Stream, forward this email to them and suggest they email us at  water@orc.govt.nz to subscribe.
 
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