MEDIA RELEASE

All-out environmental effort helps protect harbour
For immediate release: Monday 26 February 2007

An all-out environmental effort is helping to protect Tauranga harbour from the sediment and pollution created by land development, farming and other activities.

Environment Bay of Plenty is well on track to achieving its long-term goals for the harbour catchment, which covers 1300 square kilometres. The regional council is working in partnership with local landowners, community groups and a range of organisations to fence off, plant and stabilise stream and harbour margins, and to manage local estuaries.

Today, nearly all 280 kilometres of harbour shoreline and 81% of stream edges are protected from stock and other damage – a very good result, according to the council’s operations committee chairman, Bill Cleghorn.

Environment Bay of Plenty’s operations committee received an update on environmental progress at its meeting on Thursday 15 February. Mr Cleghorn congratulated staff for their commitment to their work around Tauranga harbour. “You are running a major programme with huge goals – and you are well on your way to achieving them – which is great.” Mr Cleghorn was also pleased at how the community “has got right behind this huge challenge, whether as landowners doing work on their own properties or as volunteers in community environmental groups”.

Mr Cleghorn says Environment Bay of Plenty’s approach is very much one of partnership. Council staff work closely with Tauranga City Council, Western Bay District Council, the Department of Conservation, other organisations and community groups. “It’s a huge challenge that requires a joint effort to make it succeed.”

Tauranga harbour’s main environmental issue is sediment from pastureland, streambank erosion and land development activities. It is clogging up the catchment’s 2000kms of streams and the harbour itself.

Environment Bay of Plenty’s environmental targets are set in the Proposed Water and Land Plan. They are to protect 100% of harbour margins by 2010 and 80% of river and stream margins by 2020.

Senior land management officer, Lawrie Donald, told the committee that the targets are already mostly achieved. Stock is now excluded from 95% of Tauranga’s harbour margins, with the majority of the remainder being a stretch of the Matakana Island shoreline. He says 81% of the margins of major streams are protected from stock, way ahead of the deadline.

Since the early 1980s, Environment Bay of Plenty has encouraged rural residents to fence off streams from stock and to stabilise erosion prone areas. It provides grants, via Environmental Programmes, to support this work. At the moment, 90 properties have registered Environmental Programmes while a further 22 are under negotiation. The regional council also supports 20 Care Groups in the catchment.

ENDS

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