Hill country farmers are changing their attitudes to their erosion-prone country, says Agriculture and Forestry Minister David Carter. He was flown in a helicopter by Horizons Regional Council to check out flood protection in the lowland area and hill country. Mr Carter went to stopbanks on the lower Manawatu, Moutoa floodgates, Kopane Bridge and Pohangina and Turakina Valley hill country.

He said two hill country farmers he spoke to said there seemed to be a greater awareness of the erosion problem coming from the hills reports The Manawatu Standard. The sustainable land use initiative (SLUI) programme was developed around voluntary whole-farm plans which assess the farms’ physical, environmental and business resources in a structured way. They are funded by Horizons in partnership with the Government on a dollar-for-dollar deal, through MAF’s hill country erosion fund.

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A Hawke’s Bay farm forester is devoted to repairing the environmental harm of land- use strategies of the past. David Bryant has  spent the last 35 years  mending the damage  done by over-vigorous  scrub-clearing that  denuded his Hawke’s Bay hill  country sheep and beef farm in  the 1960s reports the Dom Post. Only the steep walls of the gorges that snake through the farm had escaped the slashers. But now the 450-hectare rugged farm at Kereru, on the snowline of the Ruahine Ranges, is a showpiece of conservation planting. The bush has been encouraged to climb back out of the gorges, erosion-prone hillsides are covered in native and introduced species, and spaced planting on easier hillsides gives a park-like feeling. Shelter belts protect stock from the murderous winds and woodlots and pine plantations are current and future income earners.

In all, 150ha – a third of the farm – has been retired, with a large chunk being covenanted to bind future owners to preserving the landscape. But income has hardly been affected, Mr Bryant says. Savings have been from a sharp drop in lost stock, improved lambing under shelter, and a reduction in storm cleanup costs.The work of Mr Bryant and his wife, Ngaire, has been recognised lately with the Farm Forestry Association’s North Island farmers of the year award. At 66, Mr Bryant is still fit enough to climb the gorges and hills to plant seedlings. The lease of the productive parts of the farm to nephew Murray Hinton nine years ago has allowed him to devote a lot more of his time to the trees and bush.

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