Horizons Regional Council staffer Kevin Rooke retiring after 45 years

Kevin Rooke is retiring after nearly 45 years working in local government. Photo / Supplied

Nearly 45 years after starting work as a soil conservator with the Rangitikei Wanganui Catchment Board in Marton, Kevin Rooke is retiring.

Rooke has spent his career working for what is now Horizons Regional Council, with his most recent role that of land management adviser.

When Rooke started out, the emphasis was on farm plans and catchment control schemes.

"We had grant money from the Government but we were competing with subsidies where farmers got money for stock retention, fertiliser and land development," he said.

"That meant we had farmers farming what I call tiger country; they could afford to farm it because they had a financial partner: the Government. In the mid-80s when the subsidies came off, they had to sit back and think, holy hell, what am I doing here? There was a lot of land that should never have been farmed."

Initially Rooke looked after the Turakina Valley area. In 1989 there was a reform of local government and catchment boards, pest boards and other organisations merged into regional councils.

"My area moved down to include the Pohangina/Ōroua areas, although I was still based out of Marton. I worked more in the Manawatū district with a different soil type and different erosion problems to what I was used to."

In 2004, a storm wreaked havoc across the lower North Island with a weekend of heavy rain, high winds, plummeting temperatures, thunderstorms and hail. More than 1000 farms were flood damaged, 5000 sheep and up to 1000 dairy cattle were lost, and about 20,000 hectares of farmland were under water.

"I'm still amazed how that storm affected the entire region," Rooke said.

"I have never, ever seen a high tide mark like it. It was incredible. There was a lot of water in there. We have had '04 storms before and we've had them since, but the difference was the '04 storm affected the whole lower North Island."

It resulted in the development of Horizons' Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI).

"The old farm plans were all about soil erosion. SLUI ones are about potential erosion, water quality, biodiversity, farm and land management; the whole spectrum, and that came out of the '04 storm. We're still getting quite hefty government input into that programme through the Hill Country Erosion Fund, 16 years afterwards; and also from the rates. Farmers are rated a certain amount per hectare for the SLUI scheme.

"As per the name, it's all about sustainable land use. Water quality is also a big issue with a lot of riparian fencing and planting. Swamps were being drained when I first started, now we call them wetlands and look after them for a whole host of reasons. We started fencing off that tiger country ... that block out the back that's better taken out of grazing and put into trees."

In 2008, Rooke moved to the Woodville office to cover the Tararua area (Woodville to Dannevirke and out to the coast) as well as Pohangina Valley and Ōroua.

One of the highlights of his job has been seeing parts of New Zealand not accessible to many New Zealanders, what he calls "going out the back".

"I have loved driving around the country looking at areas I worked with, say, 10 or 15 years ago, and how they've changed. Some of my forestry jobs have been harvested and replanted again. Those are the things I'll miss; being part of those changes."

Rooke is retiring to Foxton Beach and plans a lot of walking on the beach, with a spot of whitebaiting and "a lot of doing absolutely nothing at all".