Lake Ngaroto Plan Released

The NZ Landcare Trust has completed an important milestone in the three year Ministry for the Environment (MfE) Community Environment Fund Lake Ngaroto project by releasing a 'whole of catchment' plan.

This Catchment Action Plan (CAP) has been produced in conjunction with the farming community, local and regional governmental agencies, Iwi representatives and lake users.

The CAP is broadly divided into three sections:
• Catchment level actions
• Lake edge actions
• In lake actions

In addition the action plan identifies a series of practical actions that can be taken to improve the water quality of Lake Ngaroto and prevent it from deteriorating further, however financial considerations will mean not everything can be done at once. Therefore, actions in the CAP have been prioritised into the top five recommendations considered more likely to be achievable in the short term. These recommendations are a mixture of actions that can be undertaken by agencies such as Waipa District Council, individual landowners and iwi/hapu.

NZ Landcare Trust Project Co-ordinators Nardene Berry and Melinda Dresser, co-authors of the Plan suggest the new resource should be a 'living document' that can be updated over time as specific actions are undertaken and additional knowledge about the lake and the catchment are incorporated.

A full copy of the Community Action Plan is available for download from the NZ Landcare Trust website: www.landcare.org.nz/Regional-Focus/Hamilton-Office/Lake-Ngaroto

ENDS

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