New future awaits old farm dams

Ewan McGregor at a dam site he replenished into wetland in the 1970s.

Farmer's 10-year vision to turn idle utilities into thousands of sustainable wetlands gathers momentum, writes Sam Hurley.

Hawke's Bay farmer and former regional councillor Ewan McGregor is hoping to gather further national support for his "vision" to turn old farm dams into small wetlands.

"It's an idea I've had for a few years and I thought it's finally time to put it into action," he says.

He spoke to the Federated Farmers' national council in Wellington recently, where he generated a positive response, and said New Zealand was "covered" in thousands of farm dams that potentially could be transformed to create new wetland areas.

"Ninety per cent of New Zealand's wetlands have been lost and drained for farmland. Even if 10 per cent of dams could be replenished, that's thousands of wetlands."

He says dams around the country could be fenced off, protected from curious livestock, and planted with native trees, thereby creating new ecological and environmental areas.

"The benefits would reach organisations such as Fish and Game, as they provided a duck habitat, and the Department of Conservation, while also providing a stepping stone for native birds to move around the landscape."

He says over time the progressive subdivision of farms into ever smaller paddocks has created a greater need to provide stock water which, in turn, led to the construction of small dams.

This was greatly facilitated following World War II with the availability of bulldozers, leading to the construction of thousands of farm dams around the country.

Later, the availability of the great farming and horticultural aid, polyethylene pipe, made many of these dams unnecessary, but they have remained as a back-up supply, or for duck shooting.

He says that because many of the dams are no longer required as water sources for livestock, they are perfect for an ecological project.

"The environmental factors are obvious. There will be better water quality, farmers will lose fewer stock from drowning near the dams, and the dam will serve the farm for a far longer period of time.

"There will also be more recreational opportunity, especially [for] duck shooting, and added farm value."

He says he also hoped to get schools involved in what he describes as a "10-year vision".

"I want to get country schools involved. They can find a friendly farmer with an accessible dam and the kids can adopt it as the school wetland, plant trees around it and watch it grow and develop."

McGregor also envisages setting up a voluntary trust, similar to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust, to develop, help fund and raise sponsorship towards the wetlands project.

McGregor was a long-serving Hawke's Bay regional councillor. Earlier this year he won the NZ Landcare Award for Innovation in Sustainable Forestry.