Fish & Game Applauds BOP Farm Award Winnner

Media release from Eastern Fish & Game

Great Role Model - Fish & Game Applauds BOP Farm Award Winnner

Fish & Game Eastern Region has applauded the Ballance Farm Environment Awards and its goals - with its focus on responsible farmers passionate about their land – who are preserving it for future generations while running a profitable business.

Fish & Game Officer Matt Osborne, who sat on the Ballance Awards judging panel for the Bay of Plenty, emphasises his role went far beyond looking at “wetlands and stream care.”

He said it was extremely pleasing to see a whole range of positive environmental measures being implemented. “And seeing farmers passionate about their properties – with the land meaning much more to them than just a way to make money.”

Matt Osborne says the judging panel spent time with entrants on their farms gaining a real appreciation of the property and its management.

The panel represented a variety of interests, including Federated Farmers, Farm Forestry Association, conservation boards, and regional councils. “I was working with these folk to look at much more than whether farmers had fenced off their streams, or enhanced their ponds to provide habitat for ducks.”

He says that he, and the other judges, focused on overall farming practices which are sustainable.“We are all simply caretakers of the land – we won’t be on it forever and need to ensure that we leave it in a good state for future generations."

“And we need to be aware that what happens on the land can have adverse impacts on waterways and the environment downstream unless managed in an appropriate and responsible manner.”

The properties viewed this year represented a range of different farming ventures, from dairy and sheep and beef through to kiwifruit and cropping. Fish & Game would like to congratulate this year’s Bay of Plenty Supreme Award winners, Jim and Barbara Hitchcock, along with their sharemilking team of Rhys and Kim Meredith, from Castlerock Farm in Rotorua. Mr Osborne says “This award is well deserved and the Meredith team’s property and actions are a great role model for other farmers to follow”.

The team went above and beyond regional council guidelines for control of farm nutrients – just one example of why they came away with several awards.

Matt Osborne says that competitions such as this are valuable in helping Fish & Game spread the message that their regional officers are available to help with the conservation and creation of wetlands, and in developing more of these threatened ecosystems throughout the country.

Farmers, hunters and anglers are all groups who are waking up to the fact that we have already lost 90% of our natural wetlands, through land development.

“It is perhaps still not widely known enough that for many years we’ve worked with landowners across the country providing our expertise.”

Fish & Game is working on both wetland projects large and small, he adds. They range from the large Ohaaki Wetland project near Reporoa to helping individual farmers and landowners are assisted to turn unproductive, flood-prone and swampy areas of their land into healthy wetland environments supporting a range of species.

ENDS

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