Cyclone impacts and recovery ongoing

The ongoing impacts and recovery efforts following Cyclone Gabrielle were common themes at Horizons Regional Council’s Integrated Catchment Committee meeting this week.

This committee is a hybrid of the previous Catchment Operations and Environment committees to bring together reporting of Horizons operational and non-regulatory activity. That includes the areas of river management, land management, freshwater programmes and pest control, and reflects an internal restructure to bring these teams together.
 
Group manager catchment operations Dr Jon Roygard presented an update on the river and land activities.
 
”Our teams are still working hard to help those most impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle to repair damage and get in the best place prior to winter. We have over 100 sites on our books that need repairs done and we’re working through these in priority order thanks to the reserve funding Council approved last month.
 
”We’re also in the process of meeting with some of our river management scheme committees to discuss the damage to schemes and planned works for the coming financial year.
 
”Naturally, these conversations include discussion of how flood protection and other river management activity may need to adjust into the future as we face the reality of an increased number of significant events.  As such we expect this to be a key element to Council’s Long-term Plan discussions later this year.
 
“In the land management space we are continuing to support landowners affected by the cyclone and reminding them, if needed, any planned Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) works can be rolled over into the next financial year. We know many landowners are still taking stock of the damage that they’ve received.
 
”However, many landowners have noted the role SLUI pole planting played in keeping soil on the hills during the event. The value pole planting provides is reflected in the demand we have seen for pole orders with over 40,000 being requested across the region.
 
”Our pole supply is unlikely to meet this demand so once again we will need to prioritise where they go, with a focus being on farms that were significantly damaged during Gabrielle in the Tararua and upper Pohangina and Ōroua areas.“
 
Tararua mayor Tracey Collis also attended the meeting to provide an update on recovery efforts in the district.
 
”I’d like to acknowledge the recovery support Horizons has provided and thank your staff for attending our community meetings throughout the district over the last couple of weeks.
 
”The financial support for river management activity including additional debris management and assistance regarding plantings and poles has been appreciated. As has the work going into improving the resilience of river and rain monitoring equipment on our side of the hills.“
 
The feedback Horizons has gathered at the community meetings in the Tararua District will help inform recovery efforts including river management repairs and debris removal. Enquiries around river management activities and reporting of debris in rivers can be made to the RMenquiries@Horizons.govt.nz email address.  
 
To read the agenda from the meeting, please see horizons.govt.nz.