Differing opinions on ‘lost rivers’ survey

JANE Forsyth (ODTletters, 9.9.17), once again proves that fiction wins over fact — especially during the hotbed of incompetence prior to an election. Our North Otago community are delighted to inform the uninformed that the Clifton Falls on the Kakanui River remains a bastion of summer recreation for both urban and rural residents, as it has for generations — it remains a safe and sustainable destination for Five Forks school swimming and rafting expeditions with an open invitation to join us. I suggest that Forsyth does her homework on the farcical definition of ‘‘lost’’ by trout fishing advocates — defined as the presence of didymo, and the fact that alongside these rivers are dynamic, thriving, sustainable rural communities.

Here I was thinking that these same fishermen and tourists introduced didymo (and giardia) to New

Zealand’s rivers. At what point did it become rationale to prioritise tourism and introduced fish species over our native galaxid and eels? The inconvenient truth for such grandstanding is that both the Waitaki and the Kakanui rivers have highlyregulated irrigation water allocations and that less than 1% of the nation’s 600 trillion litres of alpinefed, renewable water is utilised in productive irrigation utilisation on its way out to sea.

Rest assured New Zealand — that while you whittle away your unproductive time on emotional distractions on the fashionable topic of the day, your rural communities continue to work tirelessly with all stakeholders on improvements to water quality and land management at the same time as underpinning the nation’s GDP — resourcing your roads, your hospitals, your schools and your electioneering campaigns.

Jane Smith

Five Forks

YOUR coverage of the Federation of Freshwater Anglers’ ‘‘lost rivers’’ survey (ODT, 6.9.17) deserves further comment. The adverse impact of agricultural intensification on river water quality has been significant in lowland Otago and Southland. The changes have occurred over a relatively short time period — 15 to 20 years — and can be measured in declines in freshwater fishing activity as well as changes in nutrient and sediment inputs.

Fishing activity on the Pomahaka, for example, has declined by 50% in that period. Angling activity on smaller rivers in steeper country such as the Mokoreta, Mimihau, Waiwera, Catlins and Waipahi have all declined to a greater extent.

Southland’s Mokoreta River has suffered a 90% decline in angling activity and with those sorts of declines it is churlish to argue about whether an individual river is lost or not.

Clearly anglers are voting with their feet in response to the impact of increased nutrient input and especially soil loss, which clogs river bed gravels and changes the makeup of the aquatic insects on which fish feed. Highimpact activities on lowland rivers include grazing of winter crops in steeper country and upper catchment development.

While the Otago Regional Council have good plan provisions for rural water quality, improvements will requires successful implementation of the plan. Landholders have a key role to play and it is important to acknowledge the good work of groups such as Pomahaka Watercare who are monitoring nutrient loss within the catchment and experimenting with mitigation activities.

In his 2004 report ‘‘Growing for Good’’ the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Morgan Williams, identified the need for a ‘‘fundamental redesign of farming systems’’ to address problems associated with intensive agriculture to make it sustainable. We have made very slow progress on that front and we need to do much, much better if rivers are to be restored.

Niall Watson

Chief executive Otago Fish and Game Council