Caring for our waterways - starting our water monitoring programme

​It was a great step forward for the farm to start our water quality monitoring initiative last  week. Find out what critters Steve and Grace found and meet local waterways expert and Onekaka local resident Claire Webster.

Claire (CJ) Webster has been supporting Steve and Grace to establish the what, how, when, and where to monitor on the farm. We are now monitoring the state of 3 streams ( Tukurua, Kaituna, and Little Kaituna) across the farm. Things monitored include: temperature, water clarity, dissolved oxygen, pH, stream flow, and what is living there. Claire is Education and Partnerships Officer from the Tasman District Council, she is involved in stream monitoring and community education on environmental issues in Golden Bay. We are so lucky to have people like her!

CJ says "The Tukurua and Kaituna streams are in pretty good health with just a few places where each would benefit with changes – mostly around stopping run off from paddocks during rain events. The little Kaituna has lots of potential to improve.  Part of what is wonderful about your farm is you can provide excellent habitat for all 3 areas needed for the life cycle of some of the native fish – access to healthy upland streams, a spawning area at the interface of fresh and salt water and healthy marshland/estuary for juveniles to grow in. At 6 months old they then head inland (this is when some folk go whitebaiting) to find the right habitat for their species to grow up in. Each species needs different habitats – for example Kōaro are the mountain climbing fish going far inland while Giant Kōkopu need deep calm pools. New Zealand freshwater fish: native animal conservation (doc.govt.nz)
 

Steve said " We found a variety of critters in the streams. Different at each place, they ranged from tiny wiggly fly larvae, worms, caddis, damsel fly up to koura and inanga.
It was lovely to get in the bush and really see what's going on in the streams. There are quite a few jobs to be done, some very simple like providing a way for inanga get up streams where there is a small waterfall formed by a culvert pipe" shown in the photo.
Huge thanks to Claire and also to Grace who gave her time to help with the monitoring and the logging of all the data.

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