Horizons Regional Council’s SLUI targets exceeded

Horizons Regional Council’s Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) has met the ambitious on farm works target that was set at the beginning of the current contract, completing them in three years rather than the targeted four years.
 

Horizons group manager catchment operations Jon Roygard says that SLUI has been in place for over 15 years to help reduce hill country erosion, build resilience to storm events and improve water quality.
 
“Erosion reduction work consists of forestry, pole planting, stream fencing, sediment traps, reversion of land in pasture to native cover, and fencing of existing bush remnants,” says Dr Roygard.
 
“These works, which are possible thanks to funding received from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) through the Hill Country Erosion Programme and contribution from ratepayers and landowners, aim to keep valuable soil on our hills and out of waterways by targeting the most at risk areas in the region.
 
“The current contract we have with MPI was for four years, however we’re very pleased to say that we’ve exceeded the on farm works target set in that contract within three years. The aim was to complete 13,665 hectares by June 2023 and as at June this year we have already completed 14,639ha.
 
“We are also ahead of target for Whole Farm Plans (WFP), which are a key part of SLUI as they identify what erosion works could be applied on individual farms. This is thanks to a lot of hard work on behalf of our staff and landowners.”
 
Dr Roygard says since SLUI began in 2006, more than 649,000 ha of WFPs have been completed across 898 farms.
 
“Last year we received 629 grant applications for works to happen on farms as part of a WFP, which is the second highest we’ve ever done in a year. 529 of these were completed, with the 100 remaining being rolled over into this year’s programme.
 
“These works, combined with our freshwater programme, have seen landowners plant over 2 million trees and complete 299 kilometres of fencing. Overall, it’s a great effort considering poor weather conditions, COVID impacting staff, landowners and contractors, and rising costs associated with the physical works.
 
“Also, while SLUI works are subsidised by MPI and Horizons, landowners are contributing over half of the cost of the works so without their investment we wouldn’t have met these targets.”
 
Dr Roygard says that although the works target has already been met, there is still funding available through to 30 June 2023.
 
“This year’s work programme is already well underway with winter forestry and pole planting now mostly complete. However, we’d like landowners to be aware that while we have applied for a new round of funding for July 2023, we may not be able to roll over funding as we have done to date.
 
“So if landowners have work they would like completed or want a Whole Farm Plan, please make contact with our Land Management team sooner rather than later. Landowners can call freephone 0508 800 800 to discuss what could be done on their farm.”
 
Find out more about the SLUI programme on the Horizons’ website at www.horizons.govt.nz/managing-natural-resources/land

Horizons’ 2019 State of Environment report notes that the region has around 260,000 hectares of highly erodible land in pasture and a further 200,000 hectares protected from erosion by vegetated cover. SLUI, New Zealand’s largest hill country erosion programme, is the main mechanism for tackling accelerated erosion in our hill country and represents a $79 million investment in the region by central government, ratepayers and landowners.
 
Since SLUI began, over 29 million trees have been planted and Horizons has established relationships with more than 780 landowners to develop whole farm plans across 649,000 hectares, representing over half the highly erodible land in the region. To date over 57,000 hectares of erosion control works have been completed.
 
SLUI has been recognised in a Landcare Research report which assessed the impact of the programme on sediment levels in the region’s rivers in 2013. The closest scenario to how SLUI currently operates predicted that the annual sediment load in rivers will reduce by 27 per cent by 2043. Further modelling has shown that this may reduce to 5 per cent under some climate change scenarios.