Native Forest Systems is a leading-edge approach to landscape-scale forest restoration. Queen Elizabeth Park and Battle Hill Farm Forest Park have collectively had tens of thousands of natives planted in them in 2019 using this new approach and we have a lot more planned for 2020 (if the COVID-19 situation allows for it).
Location: Kāpiti Coast, Wellington Job type: Full time Duration: Permanent Description The Waikanae Jobs for Nature project is an ambitious multi-year effort to restore the Waikanae River catchment in collaboration with the Department of Conservation and Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai (ĀKW). It aims to build capacity and employment within ĀKW and the Kāpiti community and to achieve environmental integrity by implementing the six key kaupapa of Whakapapa, Wairua, Mana, Māramatanga, Te …
Groundtruth has produced a guide to constructing a bioreactor on a farm in conjunction with Sustainable Wairarapa Incorporated. Dairy NZ and Pamu supported a Sustainable Farming Fund project which assessed the cost-benefit of various on-farm activities for removing contaminants from waterways and improving biodiversity. The bioreactors are designed for the end of an existing pipe (Novaflow) drain. There it can intercept drainage water and remove nitrate before the drainage water enters a waterway. Monitoring …
Animal pest control got a $291M boost from the NZ Government as part of Budget 2020. This will require the coordination of lots of people and information to get this work done. It will require tracking and reporting kills and monitoring of outcomes. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Thankfully there is already a system in place to support this. Trap.nz has been doing precisely this since 2014 and the …
A new native forest planting system is helping Greater Wellington Regional Council achieve its biodiversity and climate change goals.
What costs might pastoral farmers be up for and how can they manage their risk? An information brochure summarises four years of work on modelling GHG and cash flows for a range of dairy and sheep and beef farms. The work has been done in conjunction with a number of research partners through a number of projects, including for the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC). It also discusses …
Groundtruth Ltd have produced a guide to constructing wetlands on farms in conjunction with Sustainable Wairarapa Incorporated. Dairy NZ and Pamu supported a Sustainable Farming Fund project which assessed the cost-benefit of various on-farm activities for removing contaminants from waterways and improving biodiversity. Monitoring over the last 3 years has shown that a wetland can be very cost-effective at removing nitrogen from farm drainage water. If you are interested to learn …
Dairy farm laneways adjacent to drains pose a risk as a potential source of contaminants to water. Laneways represent locations with large amounts of effluent loading. Furthermore, cow movement across a laneway of compacted gravels is likely to mobilise fine sediment, increasing the possibility of transport into waterways via runoff during rainfall events. Despite the risk of contaminant losses from laneways to nearby waterways, few studies have quantified the effects of …
News media release 04 July 2018 A long-held dream to return large parts of Queen Elizabeth Park to a forest of native plants and animals will be one step closer this week when a ground breaking new approach to planting starts. “This is the beginning of a green transformation we’ve visualised for a long time and have been planning for many months. It includes a planting system we’ve successfully trialled to deliver better …
The SmartFarms app lets farmers track their environmental performance and provides data to prove the quality of their farm environment is improving. Read the article and listen to JP being interviewed on Country Life.