NZ Herald
  • Home

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The vision is clear

Fish returning to 'lost' river

Other
16 Aug, 2019 05:00 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Photo / Supplied

Photo / Supplied

Not for sale

Farmer-led community effort leads to big improvement in health of high value river.

A 'citizen science' project headed by a group of west Otago farmers is helping turn one of New Zealand's "lost" rivers back from the brink of environmental disaster.

They say their monitoring indicates that damaging levels of bacteria in the Pomahaka River - a tributary of the Clutha River and long considered one of the country's best fishing locations - have plummeted as a result of the group's work.

Lloyd McCall, a local businessman and dairy farmer, says their recent tests show bacteria, or E-coli, levels in the river have fallen by up to 90 per cent while nitrate leaching has dropped by between 30 and 40 per cent.

McCall, spokesman for the Pomahaka Water Care Group (PWCG), an organisation of local farmers he helped set up in 2014 with the aim of returning the river to health, says the results represent "a massive improvement".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Yet he says there is still a long way to go: "The river has suffered degradation over a long period and while we are winning in some areas, we still, for example, have a problem with phosphorous levels which leach into the water through sediment."

The river - which flows about 98km between Gore and Clutha - is described in a Land, Air, Water Aotearoa (LAWA) report as being of "high value" for fishing and many other recreational pursuits. At the same time, however, it is considered the most degraded rural river in Otago.

But McCall says the fish are returning: "We have had good fishing this year and although we are not yet getting big fish like we did 15 years or so ago, the numbers have increased, so that's positive."

McCall describes the work of PWCG as citizen science and says groups can achieve similar outcomes in other areas and regions. Measures introduced include extensive riparian planting of around 22,000 native trees and plants, establishing best practice standards like encouraging farmers to fence off river banks and other waterways to prevent stock accessing the water, promoting on-farm discharge testing and trialling sediment traps.

The group does its own testing - checking water quality at 28 sites four times a year - and McCall says everything it does is not based on a rule but on a desire to improve the river to enable future generations to use it for swimming and other recreational activities.

He says testing enables farmers to understand water quality close to their properties and provides clarity on their individual environmental footprint. It also gives them direct ownership of the quality of water leaving their property.

"We're all in it together. It's all about the future, we can't be told to do it, we've got to want to do it," he says. "I sat in a meeting about the river a few years ago and thought 'this isn't going to fix things, it has to be done from the bottom up, by farmers themselves'," he says.

McCall formed PWCG with four or five other farmers; today the group has around 160 members, almost half the 350 farmers in the area.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We are lucky because once you get 40 to 50 per cent of people involved it becomes self-engaging and water quality becomes the talk in the pub.

"We've got road signs with messages like 'Your Water, Your Future' or 'Your Water, Your Community'. It's just that mental thing going on all the time."

McCall says the group has also set up a Best Practice Response Team which members of the public can contact if they see a farming practice they don't think is right.

"We'll send a group out to have a yarn with the farmer concerned," he says. "We had a case recently over some cows that had got into the water. When we checked, it turned out they had gone through broken fence wires; we shifted the cows out and fixed up the fence."

McCall owns a 300ha dairy farm in partnership with his son running around 650 cows in the Kelso area near Tapanui. His brother runs a sheep and beef operation in the district on land that has been in his family for five generations.

The Pomahaka River has a catchment area of about 2060sqkm with up to 4500km of waterways. Around 350 farms are located in the area most of which are sheep and beef operations.

Of these about 100 are dairy farms, most of which are located in the middle and lower areas of the catchment around the townships of Tapanui, Heriot and Clydevale. The average dairy farm size is 197ha.

McCall says the PWCG has close working relationships with organisations like DairyNZ, Beef and Lamb New Zealand and the NZ Landcare Trust.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from The vision is clear

The vision is clear

Bringing new life to the Pelorus

11 Aug 12:00 PM
The vision is clear

The rugby team that got dirty

31 Jul 12:00 PM
The vision is clear

Bringing back a once thriving lake

13 Jul 12:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The vision is clear

Bringing new life to the Pelorus

Bringing new life to the Pelorus

11 Aug 12:00 PM

400 farmers, a council & hi-tech analysis are aiming to improve catchment water quality.

The rugby team that got dirty

The rugby team that got dirty

31 Jul 12:00 PM
Bringing back a once thriving lake

Bringing back a once thriving lake

13 Jul 12:00 PM
"Dirty hands" goes full circle

"Dirty hands" goes full circle

05 Jul 04:00 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP