Stirling cheese plant starts own wetlands

Fonterra Stirling site environmental manager Hannah Furze and Dave Sharp from Conservation Volunteers New Zealand during a wetland planting day. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery

Longtime dairy farmer Brian Hutton has always been interested in doing the best for the environment.

So, yesterday, he grabbed a spade to help out at a community planting event at Fonterra's Stirling cheese factory site in South Otago.

A constructed wetland was being developed at the site to ensure control of stormwater for it, environmental manager Hannah Furze said.

It would also have a role as an educational area for families and school pupils to learn about sustainability. Different Fonterra sites had different methods for controlling stormwater. It would probably take a year or two for the plants to develop to really see the effect, Miss Furze said.

This week's planting, over three days, involved staff from both Fonterra's Stirling and Edendale sites, shareholders and community members. It was managed by Conservation Volunteers New Zealand.

About 1600 native plants were being planted, comprising about 20 mainly wetland species. Dave Sharp, from Conservation Volunteers NZ, said it was a "fantastic initiative" and it would also bring birds "and maybe, who knows, freshwater fish back".

Mr Hutton, who has been dairy farming since 1961, said the Stirling factory was once threatened with closure but thankfully it was now "one of the jewels in the crown".

"They're doing a great job here. It's very important to have it as part of the local economy," he said.

Over the years, he had seen "lots of ups and downs" in the dairy industry and he recalled the days when dairy factories were about "every five or six miles" and how tankers replaced milk cans.