Poo protest held at Environment Southland
A pile of cow manure was dumped on Environment Southland’s doorstep as part of a protest against the pollution of Southland’s rivers.
Save our Water Otago-Southland dumped cow manure, collected from the Mataura River bed, on the organisation’s doorstep yesterday morning, albeit after spreading a plastic sheet on the ground first to prevent any runoff.
Group member Matt Coffey said the group was concerned about the deterioration of rivers in Southland.
‘‘In 2012, Environment Southland said they want a 10 per cent improvement in water by 2020, and since then it has actually deteriorated,’’ he said.
Coffey, from Mossburn, collected the manure from the Mataura River bed near where he lives. ‘‘Environment Southland doesn’t require these parts of the river to be fenced – it’s not only the manure, but the urine we don’t see.’’
The current requirement for rivers to be fenced applied only to rivers and streams more than a metre wide and more than 300mm deep, which left the upper reaches of many rivers vulnerable, Coffey said.
The group wanted action, including a ban on stock getting to rivers and streams, a ban on the draining of wetlands, a ban on new dairy conversions or extension, a phasing out of intensive winter grazing, and active support for farmers to transition away from intensive agriculture.
Environment Southland council chairman Nicol Horrell accepted a letter from the group outlining its concerns, and spoke to them about the initiatives the organisation was working on to help address water quality issues throughout Southland.
He said there was still a long way to get Southland’s rivers back to where they used to be, but it was encouraging that in most cases the rivers are not continuing to deteriorate.
The proposed Southland water and land plan sought to address some of the concerns raised by the group, he said.
Southland had reached ‘‘peak dairy’’ and farmers were working towards getting better production with the same or fewer cattle, mostly because of improved genetics, he said.
Save our Water Otago-Southland member Liana Kelly said she hoped its concerns will be listened to.
‘‘Our southern rivers and streams, loved by trout fishers worldwide, are under attack from intensive farming and intensive winter grazing. This national crisis is hurting our tourism industry,’’ she said.
The image that New Zealand was trying to project overseas was not in line with what Coffey had pulled from the river bed, she said.
‘‘It is such a shame, it was only a decade ago that New Zealand was being sold as 100 per cent pure. Are we going to go for 50 per cent?’’ she said.
‘‘We want to leave a better world for our grandchildren and we know we can, it is just going to take the will and the energy to do it.’’
The group was planning to continue building awareness of the issue by launching an online petition in support of their submission to Environment Southland and would return to present the petition once it had gained enough signatures.