Fishing News index > November 2006

North Canterbury News Round-up

Steve Terry, Fish and Game NZ

Salmon Enhancement Program
60,000 salmon smolt were released from Montrose at the Open Day on July 2nd with 350 supporters present.

Anglers Notice
A revised Anglers Notice has been prepared and sent to the Minister of Conservation for approval. The most significant change is the plan to close a number of salmon spawning streams to angling for the 2006-07 season, in order to prevent a Didymo incursion.

Didymo
Ross Millichamp attended a meeting with Biosecurity New Zealand in Wellington to discuss their strategy for future management of the weed species. It appears that BNZ intend to focus on keeping Didymo out of the North Island and on the protection of “high value” South Island waterbodies.

Resource Consents
Rakaia-Selwyn Groundwater Zone
The hearing for 72 applications to take groundwater from between the Rakaia and Selwyn Rivers commenced in late July. The large amount of hydrological evidence being presented by the applicants and Environment Canterbury has meant that this hearing will continue until well into August. Jason will present evidence to this hearing focusing on angler amenity values, with the support of Martin Clements and John Kent who have also prepared evidence in their capacity as expert anglers.

Central Plains Water
The past two months has been focused primarily on public relations. Jason has met with a number of groups and individuals and discussed Fish & Game’s concerns about the proposed scheme. Additionally, information on Fish & Game’s concerns about the scheme, and how people can make a submission, has been emailed to our distribution network and posted on Fish & Game’s website. Consequently many members of the public have contacted staff voicing their support for Fish & Game’s efforts. The media has recently shown an interest in the environmental and recreational impacts of the scheme, with Jason getting coverage on television (TV3 news), radio (Newstalk ZB) and in regional and local newspapers. Submissions have now closed for this application. Jason and Davor have reviewed the assessment of environmental effects provided by CPW and will shortly submit Fish & Game’s finalised submission.

Ngai Tahu Properties
In July a decision was released to grant consent for this 4 cumec take from the Waimakariri. Fish & Game are still considering whether or not to appeal this decision to the Environment Court.

Trustpower’s Hydro Enhancement Proposals (HEPs) for Lake Coleridge
Councillors will now be aware of Trustpower’s plan to install two new power stations in the Harper River Diversion and one new station in the Coleridge Tailrace. The first step in the development of these proposals is to determine how these proposals ‘fit’ with the terms of the Rakaia Water Conservation Order. Trustpower commissioned two separate legal opinions as well as asking for feedback from DoC and ECan. The consensus of these opinions is that the proposed HEPs should meet the Order if designed appropriately; or in other words, that the Order may not be a ‘fatal flaw’ to these schemes proceeding at least to the resource consent stage. Jason has advised Trustpower that this is also Fish & Game’s understanding. The next step of the process is to assess how they can be designed to accommodate Fish & Game’s concerns about lost fish passage and potential angler amenity issues (whilst continuing to ensure that more detailed designs meet the terms of the Order).

Gravel Takes from the Waimakariri and Ashley Rivers
Several resource consents have been lodged with Environment Canterbury for very large gravel takes from these two rivers. Jason has compiled replies to each of these applications, which are currently in the pre-notification stage. One of these letters is attached for Councillor information.

Local Plans
Long-Term Council Community Plans (LTCCPs)
All 5 district, city and regional councils in the North Canterbury region have now finalised their LTCCPs. Jason presented Fish & Game’s submission to the fifth and final LTCCP hearing (Selwyn District Council) in June. The key themes of Fish & Game’s submission to the Selwyn LTCCP were:
Councillors should not labour under the misapprehension that CPW is a ‘flood flows into storage’ scheme – it is a run-of-river scheme (with a storage component) which has huge environmental implications for the Rakaia and Waimakariri Rivers.
While Fish & Game does not support any proposal by the SDC to fund CPW, if this is to occur, we support such a proposal being put out for public consultation. We also support the proposal by SDC to obtain an independent review of the supposed economic benefits of the scheme before seeking public input, but SDC should ensure this is a ‘net benefit’ analysis incorporating costs (including environmental costs where these can be reliably estimated).

RMA Compliance
A controversial dairy cow crossing of the Selwyn River at Chamberlains Ford was the subject of an interesting on-site meeting between Jason, the dairy farmer, Environment Canterbury staff and Selwyn District Councillors on July 23. This meeting arose after many years of public complaints to the regional council and to Fish & Game about large numbers of stock entering the Selwyn River just below the bridge. After some discussion, the farmer (a likeable chap) has agreed to apply for resource consent to install a removable bridge across the river, and to pipe stockwater. This solution should address remove the cows from the river channel completely.

General Habitat
On July 16 Councillor Holmes and Jason ran a Stream Help Day to clear overgrown willows from the Otukaikino (Waimakariri South Branch). This followed a similar formula to three Stream Help Days ran last year on the same river, with people-power provided by the Canterbury Fly Fishing Club, Christchurch City Council rangers, and PD workers, and lunch provided by Fish & Game. Mr Holmes and the CFFC have established a great working relationship with the CCC and are to be commended for their ongoing commitment to restoring angler amenity values on this valuable local brown trout fishery.

Young Angler training
Lady Isaac donated 2500 x 300 gram salmon which were released into both the Waimakariri River adjacent to the Isaacs quarry and the Groynes. An additional 800 were transferred to Montrose to on grow until Early Next year when they will hopefully be more catchable size when they will periodically be transferred back to the Groynes. New Zealand King Salmon have generously offered food to on grow these salmon.

Groynes Junior Fishing Program
Ross Millichamp, Chris Goom and Granville Holmes attended a meeting at the Groynes with CCC staff to develop the junior fishery proposal. CCC staff were very positive about the proposal and open to suggestions of possible signage and infrastructure. Chris Goom is to prepare a site plan showing the proposed locations of signs, a jetty and fishing shelter.

Statutory Liaison
In late July Jason met with Environment Canterbury’s new intake of resource consent staff and explained how Fish & Game wished to be involved in resource consent processes.

Landowner Liaison
In late June Jason attended a meeting of local landowners concerned about the route of the Little River Railtrail. While most landowners were concerned with the River Road part of the trail, concern was also expressed that the Railtrail route seemed to pass through the middle of the Ahuriri Reserve. Councillors may recall that Fish & Game campaigned successfully for funding to restore this reserve back to its former status as a lagoon with high birdlife values. Consequently Jason wrote to the Railtrail Trust expressing concern that the proposed Railtrail route could ‘fracture’ the newly restored habitat into two smaller, less valuable pieces thus undoing some of the good work done by Environment Canterbury in 2005. Jason also sought more feedback on why the Railtrail cannot pass around the perimeter of the reserve as has been proposed by the Waihora Ellesmere Trust. A reply from the Railtrail Trust is still forthcoming.

Media Liaison
The Press has run a number of articles on CPW in recent months, while Jason has written a number of letters to the editor focusing on CPW legal and planning issues. In late July CPW received considerable airtime on Newstalk ZB, with Jason being quoted on a number of occasions. On 23 July, Jason was also quoted on TV3 news as part of a prime-time piece on the threat posed by CPW to recreational values.

Salmon Management Plan
After a series of printing delays the Draft Salmon Management Plan has been sent out for public consultation. A series of public meetings to explain the plan have been scheduled to be held in Blenheim, Christchurch, Temuka, Dunedin and Invercargill in August and September. Submissions to the plan are due by October 9.

Regional Liaison
A delegation of North Canterbury Region staff and councillors attended a meeting of the Central South Island Fish & Game Council to discuss how to address the threat posed to the salmon spawning streams by Didymo. The Councils agreed that closure of the streams for the 2006-07 season was the best response.

National Liaison
In July and early August the North Canterbury Fish & Game Chairman Martin Clements has chaired three meetings with staff from National Council to discuss water issues from a national perspective. Jason, Ross and representatives from other organisations with similar interests in water issues were also present. These meetings are essentially a networking exercise to share ideas amongst like-minded organisations about water management problems and how they may be rectified. Further meetings are planned in upcoming weeks.