Healthy Rivers Wai Ora – newsletter

It looks like the biochar ‘industry’ in NZ has missed any opportunity to wave the black flag here, for N management. I have been following the public engagement from afar over the years, but there did not seem to be a path to biochar acceptance as having potential technical application. At least, not until Overseer incorporates a biochar module (and I’m guessing that’s a distant hope).

Click on the image below for a link to the web version of the newsletter…

Waikato Regional Council is urging the public to step up and have their say on Healthy Rivers/Wai Ora: Proposed Waikato Regional Plan Change 1.The council has prepared its own submission on the proposed plan, and has received 280 submissions from the public to date. Submissions on the proposed plan close at 5pm tomorrow. You can still make a submission by clicking this link here.“Managing water quality in the Waikato and Waipā rivers is one of the biggest environmental issues facing our region. For the last two decades our community has told us water quality is their number one priority, now is their opportunity to have their say on the solutions proposed,” says council chief executive Vaughan Payne. Mr Payne said no policy is perfect when it’s first notified and as with any policy development there are aspects of the proposed plan the council believes may need to be refined. We expect this to happen through the submission process. The council submission takes into consideration how the plan can practically be implemented and enforced, how the plan affects the council as a land owner and key infrastructure provider, and how the proposed plan delivers on the regional council’s legal responsibilities for developing resource management policy for freshwater management.“Our submission supports the overall intent and objectives of the proposed plan while making practical suggestions for improvements in how Healthy Rivers/Wai Ora could be implemented for affected landowners, while ensuring the protection and restoration of the Waikato and Waipā rivers into the future,” Mr Payne said.

Key submission areas include the approach to nitrogen management, ownership of nitrogen reference points, including monitoring and enforceability, the implications of the current proposal on commercial vegetable production and addressing some inconsistencies in the proposed plan rules.You can read all the recent media releases here.


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