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Farmers’ actions can help protect thousands
22 June 2012
Farmers’ actions can help protect thousands
As the winter weather sinks in Horizons Regional Council is reminding the rural community to keep grazing stock off stopbanks.
The reminder applies to both farmers and owners of lifestyle blocks as wetter soil combined with heavy animals or animals that dig can greatly weaken the region’s stopbanks.
Horizons area engineer Paul Joseph says landowners need to remember that stopbanks are not intended to provide a feed pad for animals, rather they provide essential flood protection for thousands throughout the Region.
“It’s really just commonsense to keep the cattle off the stopbanks at this time of year with wetter weather setting in,” Mr Joseph says.
“Farmers and landowners know this and in most cases are cooperative. We really appreciate the efforts being made to exclude stock from stopbanks but we just want to remind them that it’s that time of year again.”
It is a statutory offence to damage the stopbanks and landowners can be held liable to pay for any resulting repairs.
“The stopbanks not only protect property and production worth billions of dollars but they also ensure the safety of thousands of people.
“That’s why it is so important to reinforce the importance of looking after our stopbanks to anyone who may be grazing stock. Any chain is only as strong as its weakest link and all it takes is one breached section of stopbank to flood hundreds of hectares of farmland,” Mr Joseph says.
Stopbanks are a primary flood protection tool throughout the region. Horizons manages and maintains almost 420km of stopbanks, protecting over 46,000 hectares of land.
Grazing of stopbanks is allowed only by cattle less than 18 months of age and then only when then soil is firm and there has been no prolonged rainfall. Grazing with cattle is not permitted under any circumstances between 15 June and 15 September.
A copy of the stopbank grazing guidelines pamphlet is available to view online at www.horizons.govt.nz with hardcopies available upon request.
ENDS
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