27 November, 2006
Protecting New Zealand’s soil must be a national priority in order to prevent flooding and damage to the farming industry in severe weather, if the experience of the Manawatu-Wanganui district is anything to go by.
Greg Carlyon, Group Manager of Regional Planning at Horizons Regional Council in the Manawatu-Wanganui district, is a keynote speaker at the Soils and Society 2006 Conference which is being organised by Ensis – a joint venture between Crown Research Institute, Scion and CSIRO in Australia.
Mr Carlyon will speak at the conference about Horizons Regional Council’s response to the aftermath of the 2004 Manawatu-Wanganui weather bomb, and its introduction of the Sustainable Land Use Research Initiative (SLURI).
The SLURI is an $80 million programme over two years, developed in conjunction with local soil experts and scientists, to control erosion and protect soil.
“We are challenging some entrenched farming practices, and getting landowners to focus on protecting their land from soil erosion. That ranges from things such as developing forestry plantation through to closing areas down for regeneration.
“It’s all about protecting the soil which we believe will help protect the land during severe weather,” Mr Carlyon says.
Many climate experts are predicting that with climate change there will be an increase in the frequency and severity of heavy rainfall and flooding in New Zealand. That means more ‘weather bombs’ such as the one that hit the Manawatu-Wanganui region in 2004 and Canterbury this winter.
“Much of our farmland is prone to accelerated erosion which has consequences for our flood-prone communities.
“It is time for change which requires leadership from the Government, regional councils, landowners and the science community. We have to work together to make soil protection a priority,” he says.
There are about 6000 farms in the Manawatu-Wanganui region and Horizons estimates that 300,000 hectares of hill country is erodable. About 75 percent of the region’s population live downstream of the erodable land.
The 2004 storm affected 70 percent of the region and about 200 million tonnes of soil was lost, resulting in an estimated $300 million damage to the regional economy.
“Although this project focuses on our region, there are lessons to be learned for the whole country. Soil is one of New Zealand’s key resources – and it is essential that we protect this for future generations,” he says.
The Soils and Society 2006 conference is being held in Rotorua from Novermber 27-30. The conference is organised by Ensis on behalf of The New Zealand Society of Soil Science (NZSSS) and is supported by the Rotorua Charitable Trust, Environmental Bay of Plenty, Environment Waikato, Ministry for the Environment, SLURI, Massey University and Ballance Agri-nutrients.
The conference includes technical sessions and a full-day field trip and has attracted scientists from New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
For more information on the conference, visit the New Zealand Society of Soil Science website www.nzsss.rsnz.org
For more information contact:
Jacky James
Group Manager Marketing and Communications
Scion Research
Phone: 07 343 5705
Mobile: 021 579 457