wetlands massacre

Wetlands under threat from the bottom of this country to the top. Why oh why are we letting this happen - growing cows for money has a lot to answer for.

Rob Guyton has good information on the threat to Waituna Wetland in Southland, including reproducing some letters to the editor.

Environment Southland might try to halt further dairy farm development in the Waituna catchment in a bid to prevent the area's internationally significant lagoon from suffering irreversible damage. Monitoring of the lagoon, southeast of Invercargill, revealed high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous in sediments were threatening to "flip" the lagoon from an ecosystem with clear water featuring aquatic plants and fish species to one with murky, turbid water dominated by algae. When The Southland Times visited the lagoon this month with Environment Southland water quality scientist Kirsten Meijer, she showed us black mud on the edges of a tributary to the lagoon. "There's a lot of sediment going into the lagoon and the mud goes black (instead of being brown). It smells like sulphur, no oxygen, nothing can live in it," she said.

And further north in the Waikato

Hundreds of thousands of fish were found dead in the Whangamarino Wetland, near Te Kauwhata, last week. The fish were killed by low levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, according to the Conservation Department. "The drought at the end of 2010 exposed large areas of the wetland and rapid plant growth occurred in areas usually under water," Mr Hutchinson said. "High rainfall in January, compounded by the baked dry ground in the catchment, meant water rapidly ran off into the wetland and water levels remained consistently high for about three consecutive weeks." Mr Hutchinson said resulting decomposing plant matter started a bacterial process which depleted oxygen in the water. "This was shown further by the layer of oily scum present on the surface of the water, which was natural oils released by decomposing plants, the dark black colour of the water and the soft, wilting emergent vegetation starting to break down," he said. "The decomposition is also identifiable by an unpleasant smell, very similar to that from a compost bin." But a wetland resident, who did not want to be named, said the decomposition smelled more like sewage. "I have lived here since the 50s and I have never seen anything this bad before," he said. "It's an environmental disaster. This wetland is dying."

So down south dairying is identified as a major if not THE major factor in the degradation of the Waituna Wetland and black mud is an identifier, but in the Waikato, one of the most intensive dairying areas, the black mud is supposedly because of the drought and then big rains - I'll let you draw your own conclusions...

I have posted about wetlands here.

opening our eyes

When we make a mistake it can take years to remedy. Recently a film scout drove into a high country wetland to film some shots for an overseas car commercial. The damage to this area will take at least 50 years to remedy - 50 years. Now sure the area didn't have signposts or warnings and the film scout says they followed tyre tracks already going in - those are fair reasons and they highlight the concern - most people are not aware of the importance and significance of our wetland areas - where are they? The big ones are known but we need to increase the visability of lessor known areas to stop this destruction occuring.

From ODT

A film location scout criticised for damaging a high country wetland in the Nevis Valley area while filming a 4WD advertisement admits he made a mistake, but says he had no idea the bog was a "fragile" ecosystem.

The ecosystem had a diverse native plant community and was also home to distinctive wetland invertebrates.

Graham Thompson (the film scout) said many 4WD vehicles and several motorcyclists went through that piece of land while he was there.

"I consider myself a conservator and I would never in a million years have gone in there had I known it was a valuable conservation area."

"It's not like it was a pristine, amazing area. There were sets of tyre tracks all through it."

What is pristine? Our ideas of natures beauty are framed by all of the media images we get and we need to adjust that view and look at all areas - for their inherent beauty. This is not a blame issue - we just have to open our eyes.

destruction of wetland

There are many idiotic things we do to the land and draining wetlands is well up there. Unacceptable news that a wetland in the Catlins has, somehow, been drained.

From ODT

Fish and Game hired a helicopter last week to investigate reports the Lundy Marsh (formerly the Cairns wetland) had been drained and the peat bog and tussock vegetation destroyed.

"You'd hardly recognise it, it's been drained, the vegetation is gone, and from the helicopter it looks like grass on top," Fish and Game Otago officer Morgan Trotter said.

On a scale of one to 10, he described the destruction of the wetland as a seven or eight.

Bloody hell - this is really bad.

Wetlands acted as a sponge, absorbing water in winter and releasing it during dry conditions in summer, keeping rivers flowing, he said.

Mr Trotter said he had laid a complaint with the Otago Regional Council about the damage to the wetland, which he believed had taken place in the past year, although drainage of the area had been an ongoing issue.

He had also made an Official Information Act request to the council for all information it had on file regarding the wetland.

Thank goodness for the Morgan Trotter's of the world.

Otago Regional Council resource policy director Fraser McRae said the damage done to the swamp was of concern and the council would be making inquiries to see whether the work was done legally or illegally.

"The current plan does not protect all wetlands, nor will it in the future stop people from draining everything people might see as a wetland."

Taking and draining water from a wetland was a permitted activity (did not need a resource consent) if it was not in the schedule 9 of significant wetlands.

The wetland was on leased council-owned Kuriwao Endowment Land but under the 1948 Act governing the land, the council had no control over what was done on the land by the lessee.

The wetland was not in the current water plan so was not subject to any protective measures, he said.

Yep - you don't even need a resource consent to drain a wetland or starve it of water, then you can watch it slowly die. We need to help this wetland - I'll keep you posted on what we can do.

working together to save wetlands

It's a funny old world sometimes. You can end up being on the side of groups that may be unexpected.

Fish and Game is one group in that catagory for me.

The fact that Fish and Game want to save waterways and wetlands, so they can hunt and kill things there, is a little difficult to stomach but at least they are fighting hard to save our wild places. I sincerely thank them for their efforts.

We have to save our wild places, we have to protect our rivers and nurture our wetlands. There is no choice - we have to. So any group that is working to protect these places, is in alignment with our goals. We need all groups that are in alignment with our goal of protecting our wilderness from dams, from mining, from commerical activity and from unnecessary roads to work together.

Wetlands are a great example where mutually aligned groups can work together to make a difference. I hope some other groups join the call from Fish and Game.

From Rebecca Fox at the ODT

"Fish and Game Otago is calling for answers as to why some wetlands are being drained and their vegetation destroyed in South Otago.

Fish and Game Otago chief executive Niall Watson said they had yet to get an answer to their concerns that the rush swamp areas on the margins of Lake Tuakitoto were being developed into pasture.

"We want to stop any further development."

Fish and Game was also concerned about Cairn Swamp in the upper Waipahi catchment which it considered to have been "whittled away over time", Mr Watson said.

"Its drainage and destruction is not a desirable thing."

I totally agree Fish and Game.

Otago Regional Council manager support services Gerard Collings said the council was aware of one instance at Lake Tuakitoto where a farmer, who had a grazing lease, regrassed an area. It was questioned whether or not it was wetland area.

As a result the council was considering reviewing the conditions of the grazing leases.

The council was also aware of another incident on Kuriwao Reserve land, but in that situation the council was bound by the perpetual leases the landowners held."

"considering reviewing" doesn't mean much, does it. Hopefully this call from Fish and Game will get some action so that these farmers cannot drain wetlands to make more pasture. We collectivelly need wetlands much more , than a farmer individually, needs the extra income from putting some more dairy cows on their land.

parapara views

Travels in Parapara

The inlet and wetlands at low tide

A young White faced heron

Teeming with life

What do you see?

Wetlands will save us

I love wetlands. i used to drive tourists out onetahua (farewell spit) and as they were with me for 6.5 hours - i got to talk about quite a few topics, including flora, fauna, geography, history, context and connection.

Look at this photo - doesn't the whole area look like a kiwi head with farewell spit being the beak? This photo shows the extent of the wetland, at high tide the spit is one kilometre across and at low tide another 6-7 kilometres of wetland is exposed.

Onetahua - Farewell Spit

The average tide in Mohua (Golden Bay) is over 4 metres - that's 12 foot of water going in and out twice a day - it creates a magnificent wetland area. So much diversity and life and so fragile.

Destroying wetlands is stupid.

This decision here to build more marinas, against the wishes of conservationists and local maori is wrong. Keys assertion that more marinas will be built is shocking.

"Environmental groups and local Maori have fought the 205-berth marina, built on a salt marsh that used to be home for dotterels and skinks."

A good link from NickS in the comments on the Standard on this issue.

"... the 1997 review paper form Daily et al, ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems, of which pg 9 has some of the relevant details."

Page nine

"Wetlands are particularly well-known for their role in flood control and can often reduce the need to construct flood control structures. Floodplain forests and high salt marshes, for example, slow the flow of floodwaters and allow sediments to be deposited within the floodplain rather than washed into downstream bays or oceans."

And it happens in many areas, not just this country, as discussed in this article The Cultural Impact of Eroding Wetlands from Colourlines

"Brenda Dardar Robichaux, now principal chief of the Houma Nation based about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans, has fond childhood memories of helping her father, Whitney Dardar, on his shrimp boat, though as a teen she would often protest the hard work and long hours. Dardar, now 73, still shrimps, but he is driven by passion rather than profit, since profits are now scant thanks to environmental degradation and competition from shrimp farms and bulk imports. He knows his grandsons will not follow in his footsteps but instead will likely work in the same offshore oil fields that have helped destroy the traditional Houma way of life."

"Recently, environmental, industrial and economic factors have converged to make traditional subsistence practices unsustainable or even impossible for most Native Americans in this region. The main culprit is the rapid erosion of wetlands and hence the solid land that once sustained farming and provided habitat for nutria, mink, muskrat and other animals that Native Americans would trap for food and fur. The wetland loss is attributed largely to the oil and gas industry, which has cut thousands of miles of canals through the wetlands to service their offshore operations. The degradation has also long been caused by the canalization of the Mississippi River, confined by levees so it can no longer ramble and switch course from year to year, depositing sediment and replenishing land in the process."

"The wetland erosion has meant the incursion of saltwater into previously fresher areas, making the land too salty for planting and impacting fish and shellfish. The increasing salinity has seriously impacted the oyster trade that used to be a major winter-time income for Natives. Marine organisms are also harmed by the dead zone created by nutrients from fertilizer funneled south from Midwestern farmland by the Mississippi River, feeding massive algal blooms that suck up oxygen in an 8,000 square mile section of the gulf."

The value of wetlands cannot be estimated because they are actually invaluable. They provide a wonderful ecosystem that is neither land nor sea, the reduce flooding, they sustain a massive biomass not far off a tropical rainforest, they are sparce and beautiful and need to be protected.

Hat tip The Standard and Colourlines