After receiving core funding for the “Katikati Hills to Ocean (H20) Improvement Project” from Ministry for Environment’s Freshwater Improvement Fund in 2018 UEM have been working with Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council and local landowners to create a comprehensive catchment management plan to address a range of water quality and biodiversity problems in four catchments.

Problems:

Increasing urban development and intensification of horticulture/farming are accelerating stream bank erosion, sedimentation rate and stream pollution events. Ecological markers reflect these changes too: collapsing whitebait fishery, depletion of aquatic biodiversity and kaimoana, increasing algal slimes. Extreme weather events regularly highlight the vulnerable state of our catchments.

Solutions:

1. Community involvement and implementation of proven land/stream management including riparian and wetland restoration.

2. Advocate for the reduction of impacts from green-fields subdivision through improved management of earthworks and storm water.

Outcomes:

• Improved stream/river water quality (including less nutrients, E coli, sediment, pesticides).

• Stream margins and wetlands protected.

• Improved stream habitat & aquatic biodiversity.

• Land management practices modified to meet sustainability targets.

• Improved estuary health and inner harbour fishery.