Farmers safeguarding our waterways

Wainuioru is a small rural community east of Masterton. The Wainuioru Community River Care Group (WCRCG) was set up after a community meeting at the Wainuioru Hall in September 2017, attended by more than 60 people.

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The group encompasses over 37,000 Ha of land around the upper Wainuioru River and its tributaries.

Their vision is for a healthy river, thriving community, farms, forests, and ecosystems with the aim to:

• Monitor the water quality and condition of the upper Wainuioru River;
• Develop and implement plans to improve and restore the water quality and condition of the upper Wainuioru River for future generations; and
• Foster education and community spirit in the upper Wainuioru River catchment area, including the local school and Iwi.

One of the key interests in the group was better understanding the state of their waterways, in part to help plan restoration efforts but also to know where their catchment was sitting within the incoming regulations. Since 2017 this has involved a general tracking of waterway health through changes like willow removal, dry summers, and cyclones. 

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Over the past 7 years, there have been many community members involved in the freshwater monitoring of the catchment however Hamish and Eugene are the powerhouse duo behind the freshwater monitoring.

Hamish is a rural lifestyle block owner that has lived in the catchment for almost 20 years. Eugene, a software engineer in a previous life has lived in the catchment for over 30 years as a sheep and beef farmer. Both Hamish and Eugene are active in the community through the monitoring, clubs, and the volunteer fire service.

Initially WCRCG was out monitoring quarterly within the catchment area. However, since experiencing very dry summers with no water flow in the upper catchment, they reduced the frequency to twice a year. They have noted that some of the biggest changes in their river have been during the 2022/23 summer when the catchment was heavily impacted by the cyclones. Waterways that once had gravel bottoms, stony beaches and kākāhi, are now covered in silt.

In the past 3 years the Wainuioru community was fortunate to receive funding from One Billion Trees and Jobs for Nature for river restoration and planting trees on land that farmers have retired from grazing. This led to establishing a nursery and extensive willow removal in addition to planting 220,300 trees. The freshwater monitoring that Hamish and Eugene do will be a great way to see how all the work over the past three years is helping their waterways.