New push to improve lake water quality

Attendees at the launch of the Rotorua Land Use Directory on December 4 at GHA Centre. Supplied photo.

A Rotorua Land Use Directory to help provide farmers with options for improved lake water quality has been launched.

The directory is a collaboration between Te Arawa Primary Sector and a collective of Maori owned land trusts that own and administer over 30,000 hectares of land utilised within the primary sector (agriculture, horticulture, forestry and geothermal).

The land use directory was written by Bill Young and Tatiana Kiwi-Knight and has been funded through the $3.3 million Low Nitrogen Land Use Fund, provided by Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Ministry for the Environment.

'Extensive research was undertaken to put the guide together but the idea was to bring together market information and production information to give land users some insight into whether a particular land use may be for them,” says Bill.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council chairman Doug Leeder says the guide will be invaluable for landowners as they look at low nitrogen leaching land use options.

'We all want the same thing – a clean lake – and we all have a part to play in order to achieve that. For landowners that will mean making changes to the land to protect and improve lake water quality and we are committed to supporting them to enable that,” says Doug.

The Low Nitrogen Land Use Fund was established to fund research that assists landowners with reducing the amount of nitrogen entering Lake Rotorua to sustainably meet water quality targets set by the community.

'TAPS should be proud of what they have produced today, both a high quality publication and a user-friendly website which will hopefully inspire a number of new projects as we look to open the fund for expressions of interest in 2018”

The ‘Rotorua Land Use Directory – Tahuri Whenua' is available as a website online at www.landusenz.org.nz or as a free hardcopy book from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council Rotorua office, Rotorua Library or at info@landusenz.org.nz. It explores the viability of land uses for the Rotorua catchment including Manuka, feijoa, ginseng and more.

The second round of funding for the Low Nitrogen Land Use Fund will open in 2018. For more information on the fund and other projects visit www.rotorualakes.co.nz/low-nitrogen-land-use-fund

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1 comment

Nitrogen!!! Blah!!!!

Posted on 10-12-2017 12:11 | By Zeemax

Yeah thats all good for low nitrogen ferts but its still a chemical!!! The only way to really resolve this issue with the Rotorua lakes and thats including Taupo as well is to dump the chemical fertilisers that they are using i.e dont bloody use the sheit at all. Look at Taupo now...algae bloom, Rotorua lakes? Theyll be the same shortly. Instead use natural fertilisers, fish, seaweed based, basalt rock based. There are a lot of good quality natural/organic ferts on the markets to grow your microbiology and ecology, you guys just got to change your mind set!!!Oh yeah if you put your hands in a chemical based fertiliser it will start burning you.....whats the doing to the ecology?????Natural fertilisers dont harm anything or anyone.....they feed the planet. Change your mind set guys!!!!


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