Biodiversity event creates stronger connections
16 guests from Environment Canterbury, Dairy NZ, Synlait, Waimakariri District Council, Waimakariri Biodiversity Trust visited three of WIL’s biodiversity project sites on Friday 4 April.
Closer connections were made between local government, environmental groups, farm industry groups and WIL during a biodiversity site visit event to WIL’s Waimakariri Biodiversity Project on Friday 4 April.
The group first visited Bryan and Rosemary Whyte’s property to learn how they are propagating native seedlings at a greenhouse on their property and to visit the planting site around their irrigation pond.
WIL shareholder Bryan Whyte shows WIL shareholder and Environment Canterbury councillor Claire McKay some of the seedlings he has propagated in his on-farm greenhouse.
The next site visit was to Andrew and Peter Gilchrist’s farm to see how planting can be incorporated into areas containing farm infrastructure such as irrigation pivots. Attendees also had the chance to pick some flax seed pods to take to their own planting projects.
Waimakariri District Council’s principal policy analyst Veronica Spittall collects some flax seed pods from WIL’s biodiversity project lead Dan Cameron at Andrew and Peter Gilchrist’s farm.
Bennetts Stream was the final site visit. Attendees discussed the possibility for the area to be turned into a reserve site in the future which would make it more accessible and user-friendly for the community to use the area for recreation.
Attendees visit WIL’s Bennetts Stream biodiversity project site.
Throughout the afternoon participants shared ideas and discussed challenges such as the time and cost required to get plants in the ground and ongoing maintenance including weed control.
The topic of sediment control in streams was also discussed along with the importance of creating connected corridors of planting and biodiversity improvements from the headwaters or springhead throughout the river or stream system.
Following the event, attendees filled in a survey which showed that participants are keen to attend future on farm events and would like to learn more about what WIL shareholders are doing on their farms in terms of biodiversity and technology improvements.
The next step in WIL’s stakeholder engagement project is to carry out a brainstorming session with participants so we can identify which events would be suit their needs. The overall aim of the stakeholder group is to create closer connections between WIL, the farming industry, local government and environmental groups so that we can make the best use of expertise and knowledge to improve the environment throughout Waimakariri.
