Waikato dairy effluent breaches lead to $108,000 in fines
Two farmers and two farming companies were recently convicted and fined a total of $108,000 for environmental offending.
Landowners on either side of the river between the two bridges have upgraded eight kilometres of fencing and, with funding and support from Waikato Regional Council (WRC) and Fonterra's Sustainable Catchments programme, planted about 17,000 native plants and trees.
WRC Hauraki catchment team leader Aniwa Tawa says the project wrapped up with a final planting day involving staff from both Fonterra and WRC infill planting a further 200 trees and doing some weeding to release young plants put in the ground in previous years.
"The effort that has been put into this project by everyone has just been so awesome," says Tawa.
"All that is requireed to be done now is some ongoing maintenance by the landowners to keep the young plants free of weeds so they can flourish and grow to be big and strong."
