NICOL HORRELL

In the midst of short cold winter days, it’s always something of a milestone to pass the shortest day knowing we are on a slow but inevitable path towards longer warmer days.

One of the compensations of winter is the stunning sunsets and sunrises highlighting the skeletal outlines of deciduous trees in a backdrop of red, orange and pink glowing skies silhouetting our mountains and hills.

The first month of winter in the south has been relatively dry and mild, which also coincides with significant numbers of sheep, deer and cattle transitioning onto winter fodder crops.

It has been encouraging to see clear evidence during our monitoring flights of the farming community stepping up in the management of grazing winter crops.

I recently attended the Government announcement of $100 million over the next four years to deal with the wilding pines, nationally.

The announcement was made by the Minister for Primary Industries, Damien O’Connor at the Skyline complex in Queenstown.

With a view of the Remarkables mountain range, the Minister’s point of the need to protect our outstanding landscapes was wellmade.

The news that Mataura Valley Station can plant Douglas fir seems to fly in the face of reality and is totally at odds with efforts to eradicate wildings, even with controls to reduce the risk.

The growing debate over the ability to convert large scale hill country farms, including extensive tussock land into forestry as a permitted activity subject to certain criteria, adds pressure to an anomaly that needs to be addressed.

The promised review of the National Environmental Standards (NES) for Plantation Forestry, which I understand is underway, provides the Government with the opportunity to create a more riskbased framework starting with a permitted activity for low risk proposals, but ramping up to publicly notified discretionary consents at the other end of the risk spectrum.

The current NES is too permissive and doesn’t place enough accountability for the spread of wilding pines like Douglas fir.

It also fails to provide an opportunity for regional councils to comment on issues such as biodiversity, outstanding landscapes and potential water depletion from catchments already under pressure in dry seasons.

The $100 million funding package is great news for groups such as the Mid Dome Wilding Pines Trust which have worked tirelessly to rid the area and spread of this pest species.

However, regulation that allows the planting of Douglas fir in the wrong place has the ability to undermine their best efforts.

There is an old saying that if we don’t learn the lessons of history we are doomed to repeat them.

We have plenty of land that is well suited to be planted in trees, but unless there is more structure and guidance to ensure the right tree is planted in the right place we will again have to deal with the unforeseen social and economic consequences in the future.

The council is aiming to adopt its Annual Plan 2020-2021 at its meeting on Tuesday.

A lot of hard work has gone into it as we’ve looked to reduce expenditure, and factor in a reduction in income to the tune of $3.5 million due to COVID-19, which has negatively impacted cruise ships’ marine fees and our financial investment portfolio.

Then there were the emergency response and repairs for the floods in the Waiau and Mataura catchments, which had a total cost upwards of $5 million.

Some of that was covered by insurance, and we were able to access reserves tagged for this purpose, but more than $1.5 million was provided through the reprioritisation of work in our catchment division.

The council has made further savings amounting to more than $500,000 by significantly reducing the travel and conference budget, by holding off from filling some vacancies, and in various other ways.

The council meeting will be livestreamed, so if you interested in joining us but can’t make it in, you can watch via our website, www.es. govt.nz.

As frosty winter nights set in many of us are cranking up the heating and choosing to stay indoors more, but it’s also a time to when home fires significantly impact our poor air quality and those with underlying health issues, particularly in the Gore and Invercargill airsheds.

Invercargill has already recorded seven exceedances of air quality standards this winter, and Gore recorded two just last week.

The launching of our joint air quality project in Invercargill between Environment Southland and NIWA is very timely.

Twenty-five sensors have been fitted to light poles across the city, providing near real-time data on smoke patterns, and identifying hot spots.

Ultimately the information will help us, as a community, to understand how we can better manage and improve air quality so that everyone can reap the health benefits of breathing cleaner air.

* Nicol Horrell is the chairman of Environment Southland