The Government agreed and committed funds to these projects, but too late for us, personally, as we had already completed the planning for creating a wetland for this purpose.
We have been working with Nathan Burkepile from NZ Landcare Trust to create our wetland from a bare swamp area that grew grass in the drought but was mostly unpalatable to our animals.
Our vision is for this area to be a native covered biodiversity sanctuary that will also help build bridges between pockets of bush around the area. Give it a few years and it will look and be an amazing area that we and many others can enjoy.
It has been an interesting project with Nathan's advice on how to form the wetland, the best plants to use and many other aspects have been invaluable. One thing we would never have thought of is driving a pine log into the wetland with a bit poking out for birds and other wildlife to sit on.
There are many other benefits of a wetland including stripping nitrogen, reducing peak water flow, therefore, reducing flooding risk downstream, reducing sediment and phosphorous. All these will benefit the water quality in our area.
Many farmers have been working on similar projects which benefit water quality for years. For example, all the riparian planting that has been done on farms.
In the future it will be easy to remember when we created our wetland; being the year of the big HB drought and Covid-19.
* Jim Galloway is president of Hawke's Bay Federated Farmers.