Catchment groups form across Rangitīkei region

Bulls area farmer Roger Dalrymple is heading up the new Rangitīkei Rivers Community Collective Incorporated Society. Photo / Bevan Conley

A "tidal wave" of catchment groups is sweeping across the Rangitīkei, Bulls farmer Roger Dalrymple says.

Just last week two subcatchments joined a chain stretching across the Whangaehu, Turakina and Rangitīkei river catchments.

The idea is for communities to set their own environmental standards, rather than having them set by the Government or regional council.

It started when Dalrymple called some meetings in reaction to negative public perception about feedlots next to the relatively pristine Rangitīkei River. There were four meetings, supported by Beef + Lamb NZ, the NZ Landcare Trust and Horizons Regional Council.

The movement grew from there, and he's now in the process of forming the Rangitīkei Rivers Community Collective Incorporated Society, to act as umbrella body.

The Kawhatau catchment, near Taihape, has 50 to 60 people coming to meetings. The 200,000ha Whangaehu catchment could decide to come under the Rangitīkei umbrella.

"They're debating about whether they're coming with us. They may decide to do their own thing."

The movement has reached Tutaenui and is working its way toward the coast.

"I haven't formed my sand country group yet. We've got 20,000ha," Dalrymple said.

Subcatchments in the collective have to be small enough that everyone can know each other, he said. Each will have a chairman, who is part of the collective.

Their first goal is to get everyone in the community on board: Iwi, Fish and Game, tourist operators, fishers and farmers. Especially the landowners.

"You can't have 70 per cent doing something and 30 per cent not. That just will not work."

Once everyone is on board they can set standards - and those don't have to be lofty. A first goal could be just to keep all cattle out of waterways. A second could be to fence all the places where water flows across winter crops.

"If we got every farmer in the catchment doing that it would improve waterways by 90 per cent."

Standards would gradually improve, Dalrymple said.

"It will be like going up a step ladder. We'll lift our game every year and gradually we will get ahead of what society expects us to do and we will end up setting the standards."

There's a cost to joining the subcatchments - 75 cents per hectare of land owned, to a top value of $1000, and a minimum of $50 for small blocks.

Dalrymple is looking to employ a part-time co-ordinator, whose job will be to advise catchments on how to prove they're doing something worthwhile, and to hold the evidence online to use as proof.

The Rangitīkei collective has been profiled as a good model to follow, and Dalrymple is happy to help any new group forming.