AFTER John and Geraldine look at their first planting job along the river now three years old Photo: RNZ/David Steemson
A North Auckland couple, who’ve farmed their land for fifty years, have raised cash through crowd funding to bring back native bush along the banks of their farm river. The Hoteo is Auckland’s longest river and eventually flows into the Kaipara Harbour. The replanting is part of a long term goal to save the important snapper breeding grounds in the harbour waters.
So far John and Geraldine Taylor have raised twenty thousand dollars through the Million Metres Stream project. Replanting work’s about to start, the middle of next month, so David Steemson paid a call on the Taylors at their sheep and dairy grazing property in Tomarata.
BEFORE John and Geraldine Taylor survey the 1 75 hectares area along the river the next piece to be replanted Photo: RNZ/David Steemson
Up on the heights of John Taylor’s farm, the stream is little more than a trickle, coming out of the Te Arai Scenic Reserve land. As the crow flies it’s only a kilometre or two from the Pacific Ocean on the east coast of the North Island. But the Hoteo River actually runs 28 kilometres to the west, depositing itself into the Kaipara. On its way down the river collects a lot of sediment, half washed off pasture, and the river gouges the rest from its banks.
The Taylors began fencing off the waterways on their property ten years ago, initially just to help with stock control.
“I have lost so many new born lambs over the years from drowning”, says John, “and during a big thunder storm a whole herd of cows took fright and ended up in the flooded river. One animal got washed downstream, but survived”.
Soon the Taylors learned of the benefits of replanting river margins, and did their first partly funded replanting, along a short bit of the riverbank three years ago.
Encouraged by the result, they plan to do a lot more, helped on by the Million Metres Stream project. This crowd funding platform is the brainchild of the Sustainable Business Network which is funded by New Zealand business, to help industry become more environmentally sustainable.
A Million metres Streams wants to help fund the replanting of one-thousand kilometres of riverbanks… one kilometre at a time.
“It’s ironic,” says John, “ in the first few years of farming I cleared away all the scrub along the river banks… actually good native manuka and cabbage trees. We just blitzed everything”.
Now he potentially has to raise 400-thousand dollars to put back all the native plants over all twelve hectares of river bank land he set aside.
He says if New Zealand wants to have clean water and plentiful snapper stocks, it’s got to be a joint effort, through such things as crowd funding.
