Wednesday, 22 July 2015 10:00

Land-use change will protect iconic lake

Written by 
Getting nitrogen leaching load down is crucial to ensuring Lake Taupo’s health. Getting nitrogen leaching load down is crucial to ensuring Lake Taupo’s health.

Agreement has been reached on reducing by 20% the amount of nitrogen leaching into Lake Taupo through the ground.

Land use change is the key to achieving the new target of 170 tonne/year entering the lake.

The changes – via land purchase and land use changes, using money from a $79.2 million fund -- will not quickly achieve the reduction, says Lake Taupo Protection Trust chairman Clayton Stent. There will be a lag of decades during which the reductions will be seen.

The agreement is between the trust, its central and local government funders and Ngati Tuwharetoa. 

Stent says it is a major milestone in efforts to protect Lake Taupo, and “all involved are pleased”. “Getting the nitrogen leaching load down is crucial to ensuring the lake’s health.”

The trust is setting out to change local land use; stock urine is a main source of the nutrient.  The funding arrangements mean on-the-the ground work towards the 170t/year leachate cut will be finalised by 2018.

“But this is a project that will leave behind a cleaner legacy and protect this national taonga (treasure). We needed to act when we did.” 

Waikato Regional Council chair Paula Southgate says the council’s Variation 5 policy, which has facilitated the nitrogen reduction, “has been internationally recognised and has required a major effort by us all to implement”. “Ratepayers’ contributions have been important… and I’m grateful to our central and local government partners, Ngati Tuwharetoa and local landowners for their contributions.”

Taupo mayor David Trewavas says the agreement is “a major achievement for the community of the Taupo district”. 

Tawharetoa Maori Trust board chair John Bishara says: “We all need to stay vigilant to… [protect] this very special water body – Lake Taupo.”

Farming the cause, N the effect

Regional council monitoring in the late 1990’s showed deteriorating water quality in Lake Taupo, and the water was losing its famous clarity. 

Farming was seen as the cause and nitrogen emissions the effect.

The council’s Variation 5 policy included caps on nitrogen emissions from farms and limits on wastewater discharges.

All farms in the Taupo catchment now have resource consents to operate within a cap. To maintain water quality, a cut of 20% in the nitrogen from farms and urban areas was needed to restore 2001 levels of water quality and clarity by 2080.

 The Lake Taupo Protection Trust was set up in February 2007 to administer a $79.2m fund to do the necessary work. The money is from the Ministry for the Environment (45%), Waikato Regional Council ratepayers outside Taupo (33%) and Taupo District Council ratepayers, including farmers and foresters, (22%).

Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board is the owner of Lake Taupo. Ngati Tuwharetoa landowners are the largest private landowner in the catchment.

More like this

Reviewing 50 years of NZ use

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth, and nitrogen fertiliser has long been critical to maintaining the high productivity of grazed pasture systems in New Zealand.

More N available than thought

Paul Hunter farms 240ha of well-drained Mairoa ash soils at Mulroy Farm, situated south of Te Awamutu in the Waikato.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter