King Country Rivercare Update

IT’S TIME for a change of personnel at KCRC – we are excited to welcome Lana McCormick (pictured) from Aria to the role of Catchment Coordinator. Lana shifted from the Hawkes Bay to the King Country with her family and has always enjoyed helping on the family farm in the Paraheka Valley. She has a degree in architecture with a career background as a property strategist. A lot of this revolves around compliance, regulations, standards and delivering effective workshops, systems and designs. This has provided her with a great foundation for planning and information technology skills.

Lana has been involved in helping her family develop compliance plans in the past few years working with KCRC and QCONZ, and has developed an interest in farm compliance. She aims to work with farmers and make the ever changing compliance regulations less of an overwhelming experience.

“I am constantly upskilling my knowledge of compliance and farm systems. I am currently working towards becoming appointed as a Freshwater Farm Plan Certifier. My goal is to develop functional systems that comply with environmental regulations whilst also being relatable and manageable for King Country farmers. I look forward to working with farmers through King Country River Care.”

Anna wont be going far and will stay involved to ensure a smooth transition. Robyn Williamson will continue to look after our “Coast” catchment groups.

We have a few events in the pipeline - three “Exploring Carbon Neutral” fieldays, and a “Trees on Farms” fielday. These are likely to be held in March and April.

“Kick Start” 1BT Fencing & Planting funding - FINAL YEAR!! Together with Te Uru Rakau, KCRC continues to offer “Kick Start” funding for fencing and planting projects to local farmers and community groups. 2024 is the last year this funding will be available and we would love to see it all used for local projects so if you have any ideas please get in touch.

Freshwater Farm Plans (FW FP)
Coast (Marokopa & Kawhia catchment) farmers remain outside the “go live” area until July 2025 however all other KCRC farm businesses over 20ha are now in the area required to prepare, certify and submit a FW-FP. Regarding the new government Waikato Regional Council have stated “There is no indication at this stage that a farm planning system will not progress, though changes to aspects of the current framework are possible.” We are anticipating the requirement to complete these Plans within 18 months timeframe may be extended however encourage landowners to not wait until the very last minute to look to complete their FW-FP as that will likely be a costly option.

KCRC are waiting on confirmation of funding to support a series of workshops and associated resources over the next 18 months - we will let our community know as soon as we have more information. We plan to support farming businesses with existing Plans to upgrade those with required information and will also support those who have yet to start a Farm Plan. More info is on the WRC website here:
https://www.waikatoregion.govt.nz community/your-community/for-farmers/freshwater-farm-plans/

Our next committee meeting is mid February so get in touch if you would like to attend or there’s something we need to discuss.

Lana McCormick; 027 817 2111
Anna Nelson; 0274 900 501
Robyn Williamson; 0274 182 946
Reon Verry, Chairman; 0272 788 678
[email protected]
https://www.facebook.com/kcrivercare/

Birdtalk Magazine February & March 2024