NZ Landcare Trust helped organise and deliver a series of meetings in November designed to increase awareness of water quality issues in the Tasman region. The well attended meetings were held at Murchison, Kohatu, Lower Moutere, Golden Bay, Motueka and Richmond. Farmers, landowners and other water users were told about the successful work that has recently been carried out and provided with the opportunity to discuss a range of measures that could see water quality continue to improve in the future. The key message was 'rural communities have the capacity to work together and identify their own solutions to local water issues.'

At the opening event in Murcheson, Tasman District Council Mayor, Richard Kempthorne said; ”Council recognises the benefits of supporting rural communities with information and fencing assistance to meet water quality objectives rather than a heavy regulatory regime."  This message was welcomed by listeners and set the scene for whole Road Show.

Tasman District Council Resource Scientist, Trevor James led each of the meetings, highlighting areas where the community is doing well and identifying where more could be done. Trevor said."Council data tells us overall Tasman is doing well compared to the rest of the country particularly in our large rivers but there is still work needed on some of our small streams and waterways. Lack of suitable shade, sediment, bacteria and nutrient escape to water will cause continued to decline to native fish (whitebait) and trout spawning streams." 

NZ Landcare Trust Regional Coordinator Barbara Stuart and Glen Lauder from Common Ground helped facilitate discussion. Improved practices when cultivating close to steams were recommended by Farmer Dave Field at Murchison who suggested ‘direct drilling’ as an alternative to cultivation. A call for better guidelines when removing crack willows was requested at the Kohatu meeting in order to help maintain good shade cover for aquatic life and the use of Wetlands to act as kidneys of the land was recommended by Shirley Haywood of DairyNZ.

It is clear that farmers and rural communities can play a significant role improving water quality in New Zealand's waterways. If they are willing to be proactive it is possible to gain the support of local authorities rather than wait for regulation and inevitable enforcement.