A guide to encourage and help plantings survive in riparian areas along the Kakanui River will be launched at a field day tomorrow as part of a community project to enhance and protect the catchment.
The Kakanui Riparian Planting Guide will provide valuable guidance for farmers and residents in the Kakanui, Kauru and Waiareka catchments considering or planning riparian planting work.
The riparian planting workshop - from 10.45am at Waiareka Dairy Farm on Pig Island Rd, Windsor - will feature an extensive programme ranging from advice on planting and species to visits to area already developed.
Compiled as part of the New Zealand Landcare Trust's Kakanui Community Catchment Project, the guide includes tips and information to ensure planting projects have the best chance of long term success.
It also includes a list of species best suited to the three catchments, requested by local farmers.
A co ordinator for the project, Nicola Holmes, said riparian planting required an investment of time and money, plus hard work to ensure they thrived.
With water quality coming under ever increasing scrutiny nationally, the trust was working alongside farmers and landowners around New Zealand, helping them to take a proactive role in adapting farm management systems to reduce impacts which could damage the environment.
The Kakanui project was an example of this approach.
''The project's main focus is to improve knowledge and awareness of the various ways to improve water quality, reduce soil erosion and increase aquatic life and native plants within the catchment,'' she said.
