Horizons Regional Council’s Sustainable Land Use Initiative uses a range of interventions, such as poplar poles, to prevent erosion.
Horizons Regional Council’s Sustainable Land Use Initiative uses a range of interventions, such as poplar poles, to prevent erosion.
Horizons Regional Council’s Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) has ended the first year of its fifth four-year contract on a high.
Horizons group manager catchment operations Dr Jon Roygard said SLUI aimed to build resilience to storm events and keep the region’s hill-country soils on the hills andout of waterways.
“Our Sustainable Land Use Initiative is co-funded through central government’s Hill Country Erosion Fund (HCEF), allowing us to complete erosion control works throughout the region in partnership with landowners. SLUI utilises a range of interventions to prevent erosion such as afforestation, stream fencing, poplar and willow pole planting, installing sediment traps, fencing existing bush remnants, and reverting pasture to native cover on hill country.”
Roygard said SLUI’s success was a testament to the ongoing partnership between central government, the council and landowners to complete on-farm works.
“SLUI wouldn’t be possible without landowners seeking to have work completed on their farms, so I’d first like to thank them for their contribution, which includes co-funding, to the significant work we’ve achieved so far. Last financial year we completed 3793ha of work, or 120% of its annual plan target, and mapped 11,016ha of farmland, or 10% more than the target.”
Roygard said Horizons’ pole nurseries also performed well despite the 2023-24 year’s dry weather not producing usual pole growth.
“Our land management advisers also worked with farmers and landowners to distribute and plant 36,818 poplar and willow poles through SLUI, last year being the largest annual amount for the SLUI programme to date.”
Landowners interested in completing SLUI work on their farm can contact their local Horizons land management adviser on freephone 0508 800 800 to discuss farm options.
