A new committee which will help manage water in the lower Waitaki River catchment and Waimate district, has been allocated $100,000 per year for five years to help fund biodiversity projects.
The Lower Waitaki-South Coastal Canterbury water management zone committee, which was established by Environment Canterbury with the Waitaki and Waimate district councils, under the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, held its first meeting in Oamaru on Thursday.
ECan senior resource care co-ordinator Julia Crossman gave a presentation on the Immediate Steps biodiversity programme, which aims to restore and preserve areas of significant biodiversity value throughout the region.
Projects will be in collaboration with landowners and communities.
The programme is for $10 million (including one-third contribution from sources outside the Canterbury Water Management Strategy) over five years for the Canterbury region, with each zone allocated $100,000 (plus one-third contribution) per year.
In late September, a group of key stakeholders met to identify potential year-one projects in the zone and possible priority areas for a five-year programme.
Since that meeting, further details about each of the projects had been obtained.
There was quite a range of potential projects, with a range of sizes and works required, Mrs Crossman said.
Projects included everything from construction of a trout barrier to protect lowland longjaw galaxias, to fencing and willow removal, weed control and native riparian planting.
ECan officers will progress the year-one projects listed through assessment and report back to the committee with recommendations in February next year.
Committee member Matt Ross believed publicity would be useful, so people knew the project existed and other biodiversity projects might arise that the committee could help with.
At the committee's next meeting, the positions of chairman, deputy chairman and regional representative will be filled.
