Rangitata River to be restored
Major protection of the Rangitata River is on the cards, with a ‘‘jobs for nature’’ restoration project being approved in principle, and a multi-agency group working on further projects
Department of Conservation (DOC) director general Lou Sanson said in a social media post yesterday that the jobs for nature project will include fencing 110 kilometres of riverbed and wetlands, planting 116,000 native plants on riparian margins, trapping sediment, and protecting braided river birds such as the wrybill, black billed gulls, black stilt/kakı¯ and black-fronted tern.
he work would employ up to 86 people over the four years, according to the post, which also said it was “part of DOC’s new multiagency $20m partnership”.
‘‘The programme is our flagship restoration of a Canterbury braided river ecosystem,’’ Sanson said.
DOC’s Geraldine operations manager, Duncan Toogood, confirmed it was ‘‘working with our project partners Te Ru¯ nanga o Arowhenua to finalise the deed’’. The work had been ‘‘approved in principle’’, he said, and ‘‘once the deed has been agreed, an official funding announcement will be made’’.
DOC has been allocated just over $500m over the next four years to create nature-based job opportunities for about 6000 people.
Toogood also confirmed the multi-agency partnership with Te Ru¯ nanga o Arowhenua, Upper Rangitata Landcare Trust, Land Information New Zealand (Linz), Environment Canterbury (ECan), DOC, Ashburton and Timaru district councils, which ‘‘will see significant investment from various agencies that will help the restoration of the Rangitata’’.
Te Ru¯ nanga o Arowhenua representative Karl Russell said a lot of the conversations began after the Rangitata River floods in December 2019.
‘‘We realised that if major flooding in the Rangitata River was going to continue, then we needed to have a new approach to restoring the river,’’ Russell said.
‘‘There’s been a lot of consultation with the agencies to get to this point, but we’re almost ready to take it out to the community.’’
The Rangitata River, which has been subject to a Water Conservation Order since 2006, has been under the microscope in recent times.
Late last month, Rangitata Diversion Race Management Ltd confirmed it had ‘‘relinquished’’ its consent to take an extra 10 cubic metres per second of water at high flows, after consultation with Runanga.
DOC has also singled out the river as a ‘‘priority catchment’’ and employed a ranger dedicated to restoring the health of the river, while at the most recent Central South Island Fish and Game council meeting, councillor Matthew Hall expressed his concern that the fisheries in the Rangitata River catchment could decline to ‘‘nothing’’ unless action was taken.
‘‘From my perspective, all the agencies are on board now, in a way they haven’t been in the past,’’ Russell said.
‘‘They’re actually listening to our concerns. But it needs to be a long term project, it can’t be a one size fits all approach.’’
Braided River Aid Group committee member Grant Davey, who has also called for work on the nearby Opihi River, said he was pleased to hear that something was being done on the Rangitata River. The group, formed in 2006, has been involved in several braided river restoration projects in the South Island.
Central South Island Fish and Game resource officer Angela Christensen said it was ‘‘exciting’’ that a programme of this magnitude was being worked on.