Newsletter February 23

I hope you have all had a great break over the summer, enjoying this beautiful country we live in even if the weather has hardly been the greatest.

Funny how there’s good and bad to this weather, on one hand its helped our plants grow, but then so have the weeds and grasses around them and we had to put extra resources into releasing them. Make sure you are checking on your plantings as it can become a big job very quickly.

This year we are are getting a “Friends of the Pokaiwhenua” Membership Group together.

This will be coming out shortly and will give you access to discounts and advice, along with access to funding opportunities and the ability to get involved. If you keen to be volunteering, your time, we have opportunities with weed clearing and pest control. give me a call and we will let you know where and when.

We are also doing a survey this year to help us understand our catchment. Please take a few minutes to fill it out to help us work out where the needs are and who is in our catchment.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PCGannualsurvey_Email

I have been working closely with several farmers looking to take advantage of some money we have available from WRA to do riparian plantings or wetlands. The benefit to our catchment is great when we can stop sediment and nutrients entering waterways and erosion along the banks of our streams. This bad weather we have had has allowed us to see where the rainwater is running and draining into our waterways and maybe you’ve seen some places where you could maybe make a small wetland and plant the area up to prevent this.  If you are interested in doing something at your place, please make contact and we can have a look and see how we can help.

Out in the catchment over the break we have been getting ready to start a project on the Whakauru Stream alongside the New Trade centre. This is a project alongside SWIFT, and we thank them for their support. We will be clearing the stream area in early Feb and looking to plant the area in Autumn. Any volunteers will be helpful, keep an eye out for the call up.

SWEI have just put out their application and we would encourage you to investigate this and apply for funding for riparian plants.

 Head to www.southwaikato.govt.nz, click on ‘Our Council’ then select ‘Grants and Funding’. Here you will see the SWEI page. Applications close 24 February 2023.

We have registered with Trees That Count so if you have any spare Reward points with Farm source you can donate them, and we will get the money back to plant trees plus Fonterra puts in dollar for dollar, so this is a great opportunity to get plants for our catchment.

Upcoming events.

Friends of the Pokaiwhenua, Feb release

14th March; On farm visit with DairyNZ looking at How a major planting project works from funding to completion

5th April; Free Lunch from the cart with  Matt Highway from Elemental Environmental and Environment Waikato Reps at Farmsource  Tokoroa.  Just a informal catchup one on one with them. So bring your questions along to see how we can help with your environmental challenge.

10th May; Bus trip to look at trial sites and find out all about the new grasses and brassicas with the seed companies. Pub lunch provided.

I look forward to seeing you out and about

Andrew Lennox