Farmers take action to protect lakes

Farmers in the Lake Rerewhakaaitu catchment are taking action to protect the lake’s water quality by reducing their own nutrient flows.

Environment Bay of Plenty has invited the area’s farmers to prepare the lake’s catchment plan after the group participated in two Sustainable Farming Fund projects to address issues with nitrogen and phosphate management.

Land Management Group Manager Warwick Murray said Lake Rerewhakaaitu was the only lake catchment in the Rotorua area where dairy farming was the main activity. Environment Bay of Plenty’s monitoring had shown that nutrient levels in streams flowing into the lake were increasing.

Local farmers were concerned about the future of the lake and the possible imposition of nutrient controls on their farming operations. The Sustainable Farming Fund projects helped identify ways that pastoral management in the catchment could be changed to minimise environmental impacts and allow sustainable dairy farming to continue.

The first project concentrated on nitrogen management, with farmers participating and using technology to reduce nitrogen flows to the waterways. The second SFF project, which looked at phosphate management, demonstrated low-cost but effective ways of reducing phosphorous loss.

“The second project found that greater emphasis needed to be placed on identifying phosphorous loss ‘hotspots’ on individual farms, and best management practices to reduce loss were developed. These include careful attention to stock management on sloping land, especially near waterways and during wet periods,” Mr Murray said.

The project also found farmers needed agricultural engineering support to design races and sediment trapping devices to minimise sediment loss.

“Sediment loss is a major source of phosphorous loss to Rotorua’s lakes, and the farmers have enthusiastically accepted the challenge to prepare the catchment plan for Lake Rerewhakaaitu. This will include preparing individual farm plans and combining them into the catchment plan.”

The catchment’s farmers are now onto phase three of the project. This will include measuring current nutrient loss from each property and developing a nutrient budget for each farm using tools to reduce the losses. Following independent audits, the results will be incorporated into an overall catchment action plan.

The plan will also include other off-farm actions agreed to by the community such as wetland enhancement and lake edge restoration by the Department of Conservation. Other bodies involved in the project include Dairy NZ, Fonterra and Fert. Research, and farmers are funding their own implementation of the nutrient loss mitigation initiatives.

“Commitment to action on the ground and continual improvement will be key features of the next part of this valuable project,” Mr Murray said.

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