Fishing News index> October 2007

The Horizons Regional Council One Plan: what’s in it for anglers?

Maintaining the quality of freshwater environments in the face of intensifying agricultural land use is an increasingly stiff challenge for Regional Councils around the country. The Horizon’s Regional Council has met that challenge head on in its proposed “One Plan” a rather hefty document combining a Regional Policy Statement and Regional Plans covering the use of a range of natural resources. For anglers the key issues are the quantity and quality of water in local rivers.
 
With regard to water quantity; the Horizons Regional Council has been working hard to understand the availability of fresh water for both environmental and agricultural uses by assessing variability in flow rates in many highly stressed rivers like the upper Manawatu and Rangitikei. Telemetered flow gauges have been put in place throughout the region to provide continuous information on how much water is being drawn from the river by particular consent holders (see the monitoring information online at www.horizons.govt.nz/watermatters). This system provides “up to the minute” information on water use in relation to minimum flows restrictions and allocation limits, and provides a robust system for managing water takes during low flow periods when rivers approach “minimum” flow levels (when abstractions must cease).

Allocation limits on rivers identified in the proposed One Plan have been developed to ensure that there is sufficient flow to maintain trout habitat, and the considerable investment that the Horizons Regional Council has put into the monitoring of water takes provides real confidence that this important environmental “bottom line” will be met.

The Horizons Regional Council has adopted a similarly robust approach to maintaining water quality, with the proposed One Plan including standards for key indicators of water quality such as dissolved nutrient levels, pH, temperature, and water clarity. These standards have been based on thresholds known to be essential for maintaining particular environmental values such as trout fisheries, trout spawning habitats, in particular rivers. 

Rules that would restrict land use practices in an effort to meet these standards are an integral part of the proposed One Plan. To reduce the nutrient outputs to rivers and streams from intensive land use activities like dairying, irrigated sheep and beef farming, cropping and horticulture, the Horizons Regional Council has proposed that in a number of catchments these land uses should require resource consent. This provision would see tighter management of agricultural land in the catchments of upper Manawatu, Mangatainoka, and lower Rangitikei Rivers, and would be a big step to maintaining the maintaining the quality of trout habitat in these rivers over the long term.

Submissions on the proposed One Plan closed at the end of August and are currently being analysed by staff at the Horizons Regional Council. The Council will begin hearing from submitters early in 2008. The proposed One Plan promises a lot for those concerned with maintaining the quality of freshwater habitats; the outcome of the hearing process will determine just how much it ultimately delivers.

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