On The Up: Award-winning Swannanoa farmers plant over 2000 seedlings with help from community

Brian and Rosemary Whyte have been awarded the 2025 Waimakariri Irrigation Limited Shareholder Excellence Award for Environmental Stewardship.

Taking positive action to improve the environment while involving the community in their planting project has proved rewarding for Swannanoa farmers Brian and Rosemary Whyte.

The couple have received the 2025 WIL (Waimakariri Irrigation Limited) Shareholder Excellence Award for Environmental Stewardship.

Over the past three years, the Whytes have grown and planted more than 2000 seedlings from a greenhouse on their farm.

With help from Swannanoa School and other community groups, they have planted a 1.2km section of Burgess Stream, which flows through their property.

Rosemary said she was thrilled to see their original vision come to life and for Brian to be acknowledged for all the effort he had put into raising and planting the seedlings.

Brian said he was grateful for the support from WIL and the community.

He believed encouraging farmers to grow plants from seedlings on their farms was a valuable initiative.

He credited WIL’s biodiversity project lead, Dan Cameron, with providing invaluable support and advice right from the beginning of the project.

“Getting that initial plan from Dan was important, as we could do everything in stages.

“One of the important things we have learned through this process is that you need to spend roughly one-third of your time on preparation, one-third on planting and one-third on maintenance.”

Brian said WIL had been very proactive, and was good to be recognised for doing something positive for the environment.

“I think the awards are important, as farmers don’t often receive recognition for what they are doing to improve the environment on their own farms.”

Rosemary said having schools, other organisations, and their extended family involved had been extremely helpful.

She said the couple enjoyed sharing their project with others.

“We’d like to thank everyone who has helped us with potting up seedlings and planting out, especially Swannanoa School and the Rangiora church youth group, who volunteered their time to help us.

“We have had quite a few family planting days, and while we need to make sure we have something nice to eat afterwards to motivate our grandchildren, it is always a lot of fun for us to get together and do the planting.”

Now that their original planting project has expanded, Brian and Rosemary have purchased a larger greenhouse, and the initial greenhouse provided by WIL will be used by another shareholder who wants to start their own biodiversity project.

They hoped the awards and the projects would encourage other farmers to get involved.

“It is good to be able to show the progress that we are making and to be able to pass on the greenhouse to the next farmer who wants to grow their own seedlings.”