Flat-fishermen on Jacob's River Estuary

Dragging for flounder is becoming increasingly popular as the run of very good winter weather continues.

These net-draggers were hauling in half a dozen fat flatfish with each pass. They claimed that the effluent from the dairy farms up river was fattening the fish and that the take had never been so good.

Overhead, a tui warbled.

At our feet, these creatures gasped for breath.

Nest appears, Council demands removal

Local gull signals approval for nest

Riverton Kindergarten sights moose

Don Elder on Jan Wright on lignite or wood

Dr Elder says 'lignite'.
Dr Wright says 'wood'.

Elder:

“We will take full responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions in developing our Southland lignite projects."

Government-owned coal miner Solid Energy came out with a sharp comment on the Parliamentary Commissioner for Environment over a view on biofuels. Solid Energy said the Parliamentary Commissioner for Environment, Dr Jan Wright, was misinforming the important national discussion on the country’s transport future.
By *focusing solely on environmental issues*, Dr Jan Wright concludes that the future does not lie in lignite-derived fuels.
This, said Solid Energy chief executive Dr Don Elder, ignores the real question: “How do we provide New Zealanders with transport fuel security and affordability while addressing environmental sustainability?”
Dr Elder acknowledged Dr Wright’s contribution to the debate around New Zealand’s emerging biofuels industry but said her focus was* too narrow *and risks cutting off valuable options.
“Solid Energy believes the Southland lignite resource is capable of producing a secure, affordable supply of transport fuel and we are committed to addressing environmental impacts.

Wright:

The country's environmental watchdog is taking aim at a state-owned coalminer's plans to turn lignite into diesel.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright said the Government should only support Solid Energy's plans for a large-scale synthetic-fuel facility in Mataura, Southland, after *considering if wood
could be used instead*.
"Solid Energy is a state-owned enterprise and when it invests in infrastructure it pays a lower dividend, thus reducing Government revenue,"
Wright said in a report released yesterday.
"The *responsible ministers* should take a strong interest in any *major long-term investment by Solid Energy*, especially one with the potential to  *increase national greenhouse gas emissions.*"

Friday Leunig - Curly Flat

Whose rain?

Alert observer Wayne M. sent me this disturbing article about the rain that falls on your roof, or at least the rain that falls on the rooves of houses in some American states.
Seems the Government is claiming the rain as their own.

"You may not be aware of this, but many Western states, including Utah, Washington and Colorado, have long outlawed individuals from collecting rainwater on their own properties because, according to officials, that rain belongs to someone else."


 Read and weep (or at least recognise that it can happen.)

Neurosurgery and the state of Bill's heart

Christchurch wants our neurosurgery service and our neurosurgeons.
We want both to stay here because the tyranny of distance is no joke when you are in desperate need of them. Making the journey to Christchurch, even once your condition has been 'stabilised' by staff here, is not an option any of us should settle for.
Alarm over the pressured proposal has spread across the south but one 'Southerner' seems not to be aware of the acute concerns being expressed here - Bill English.
Where are you Bill, when your neighbours need you?
Karori is not in Southland, it's true, but Dipton is.
Show us where your heart really lies.

"Passionate lunatics"

That's what the members of the Bluff Hill/Motupohue Environment Trust call themselves and who could or would argue with them!
They're fighting a war against stoats, ferrets, rats and possums on Bluff Hill, in an attempt to make it a better place for the native birds, insects and plants that have suffered ever since the arrival of the pests.
I've met those guys and been shown around territory and take it from me, you'd need to be a little 'touched' to take that job on and thank goodness they are and have!
Congratulations to the team for your success with the Environment Southland Awards - you're the kind of enviro-troopers every community needs.

Telling the truth (are politicians, including the PM, exempt?)

From The Herald

"A politician who does not twist statistics to suit his or her argument is not by definition a politician.

John Key's big attraction, however, has stemmed from being seen to be not indulging in such behaviour.

But yesterday, the Prime Minister revealed he is is as capable of Machiavellian manipulation of the figures as the rest of the pack."

Should we admire our politicians, national or regional, when they mislead us, or should we hold them to account and make our feelings about lies, 'mis-speaks' and mis-directions known to them?

I say, tell them loud and clear!

(hat-tip Scott)

Porkers!

This on NoRightTurn on the Pork Board's wriggling to avoid scrutiny.

"The leaked email, sent to farmers on behalf of the Pork Industry Board, said: "It is likely there will be a number of farms requiring corrective actions and ... those actions could cause embarrassment to the farmer if made public and could cause embarrassment to the industry if used by animal welfarists"

Baiting the baiters.

The 'fishing' season must be approaching. There are nets hanging for sale outside of our local hardware store. I have, for a very long time, questioned the practices around whitebaiting and the so-called management of the galaxid fishery. Many of those practices are poor and efforts by the industry to manage the health of the fishery, are a sham. My criticisms aren't aimed at the recreational whitebaiter but at those who exploit the fishery and the rules around it in order to make money. I've no time either for those who destroy and damage whitebait habitat and down here in Southland, that's a high proportion of our rivers.

As part of my protest, I had this t-shirt printed and I wear it wherever I think it might be noticed.

In this photo, it's hanging on the line having been washed in preparation for the 2010 season. 

While we are talking moose...

Dave S. sent me this image (don't look if you have a delicate constitution) and asked the legal question:
Is this statutory rape, or merely a moosedemeanor?

Turnip28 on farms, farming and farmers

(I've lifted this comment by 'turnip28' straight from Frogblog because it is a well presented argument for foreign ownership of farms on New Zealand soil. I hope my 'hat-tip' is enough for turnip!)

The idea that the farm belongs to the farmer is absurd. As long as you have a mortgage with the bank then it belongs to the bank. These days no one pays off their mortgage instead they sell in order to receive some capital gains (Idiot farmers idea profits). Note most farmers don’t understand how to run a business and think the capital gains from selling there business is “profit”. Note profit is what is left over at the end of the year after meeting all your expenses.


Very few NZ dairy farms are going concerns anyway which means the vast majority of them have 0 economic value. The farmer only makes money when he sells the property, any revenue generated via dairying went to service the mortgage and the farm costs. This means there is no loss to NZ from having a foreigner own and the land to having a NZ doing it. Zero dollars from this process is leaving NZ. The money that is leaving NZ is from the interest on the mortgage which is the same in both cases.

Gathering clouds

Business confidence weakens once more

(I don't get too excited by the business page in the Times but today I'm having a shot at being business savvy).

BUSINESS confidence fell for the third month in row in the latest National bank business outlook report, pointing to growth slowing.

(For the ordinary New Zealand who is not focused on business matters, this news seems at odds with what the likes of Bill English and John Key are saying to us.)

National Bank economists said there was now a clear change in direction and weakness in confidence was broad-based.

(I guess we'll just have to wait and see - we'll know for sure when interest rates go up!)

A Cracker Candidate challenge

Paddy Lewis, over at 'Credo Quia Absurdum Est' is throwing down the gauntlet to all candidates standing for positions in the the local body elections and so far, I'm the only one bold enough to state my position on any of the questions he's asked! I've pipped Shadbolt, Prentice, Collie and the rest of them at the (starting) post and it was pretty easy. I hope there is more action than this around this election!
Go here to have a look and probably more importantly, your say!

Western Star responds

(See if you can make sense of the editor's add-on)

The Artist writes " re: chopping down of driftwood sculpture in our estuary. I would like to thank the person responsible, for they have opened a whole new world of possibilities which you will see in good time. Thank you again for your random acked of vandalism.
Wayne of the hill.
[Environment Southland advises consents would have been required. No consents were applied for, therefore no consents were granted. Ed]

RadioLive - pruning

If you've got some fruit trees that need to be pruned and you just don't know where to start, listen to RadioLive's 'Kitchen and Garden Show' on Saturday morning, when I'll be talking with Tony Morell about the ancient art of snipping and clipping.

We've got rain!

The water trucks had been running for several days, refilling water tanks in Otatara and Riverton and no doubt other rural Southland enclaves as well, but they won't be rolling today - we've had a couple of days of rain now and that'll be doing their job for them. How common is a winter drought down here I wonder?

Staggering apparition

The moose is in the rag!

There's a whopping great photo of the Mighty Stag/moose in today's Southland Times with a blurb that reads:

"Is it the mysterious Fiordland moose, or a mighty Southland stag? Riverton artist Wayne Hill's latest sculpture, The Water Walker, appeared in the Riverton Estuary on Friday night, just in time for Southland's Ranfurly Shield rugby wim over Wanganui. Hill said when he started working on the sculpture he hadn't decided whether it was a stag or a moose . "Some people said it looked like a stag. Or it's the mysterious moose in Fiordland that's got a little bit lost and ended up in the estuary," he said.

Note to those following the spread of the 'driftwood sculpture' phenomenon, there's another 'warrior' figure standing on 'Gemstone Beach' at Orepuki - artist unknown.

The Big Latch-On.

I know it's a Good Thing but it just sounds so painful!

"Northern Southland women are joining the country's nationwide breastfeeding marathon on August 6 as they simultaneously latch their babies on for a feed."
Fiordland Advocate 22 July

See-through fence

While we were out and about today, collecting scion wood from old orchards, I spied a fence with two eye-holes, at child's-eye height.

When I peered through, a stubby finger stabbed ...nah!

But it could have!

Water privatisation

This, from Indymedia, is what we need to be guarding against. I've grabbed a sizable chunk of their article, but it's so well expressed. The remainder can be read here. Essential reading.

" On Tuesday 4 May 2010 the Local Government Amendemnt Bill passed its first reading in New Zealand Parliament. One aspect of the Bill deals with water. While the government is denying this, the Bill allows councils to privatise water. They will be able to:

• enter into contracts with private companies to run water services for up to 35 years (the current limit is 15 years)
• allow private companies to own and control water infrastructure for the duration of these contracts (the current legislation requires councils to retain ownership and control of water)

The long-term leases the Bill allows for are the dominant model of water privatisation in the world. It is very rare for councils or governments to sell off the water asset entirely. Long term leases work in private companies favour as they can make profit from water while the public sector retains long-term costs and responsibilty. Internationally the model that has been proposed is shown to lead to higher water costs, less accountability and reduced services."

(more)

Monbiot mirrors National on unhealthy food

"In future poor diets would be countered by “social responsibility, not state regulation.” From now on, he announced, communities will be left to find their own solutions. The companies which make their money from selling junk food and alcohol will be put in charge of ensuring that people consume less of them. I hope you have spotted the problem."
more

He's writing about the disasterous anti-social moves in Britain to pass the responsibility for healthy eating over to the purveyors of poor health, but George Monbiot could just as easily be penning a report for New Zealand.

Shunda's mumblings

Shunda Barunda, West Coast blog reader has become West Coast Blogger, with his first ever post and it's a good one.
Shunda's photograph of a taupata at sunset is worth seeing.

Times letter - Southland Stag

The driftwood sculptures at Riverton are magnificent things!

The latest work to appear in the shallows of the estuary, an enormous stag with branching driftwood antlers created to honour Southland's mighty Stags rugby team reflects the pride we all share in both our sportspeople and our artists.
The town has struck it lucky having artists willing to create sculptures and exhibit them for free against the backdrop of the estuary for everbody to enjoy.
These graceful driftwood sculptures are an attraction for visitors and locals already.
If our artists are this active over winter, imagine what the coming spring and summer will bring!

Express lampoonage

To the Editor

Phil McCarthy (In My Opinion) has a good laugh at the expense of 'C-grade' political candidates for the coming local body elections, calling them 'feverish' and describing how they will clamber for our attention, try to drum up interest through the newspapers and blogs and he's right, they will!
I will too, as I am one of the candidates Phil lampoons.
My blog http://robertguyton.blogspot.com has been up and running for a long time and it is, I like to think, widely read and interesting.
I'm looking for newspaper exposure too and here it is!
Thanks Phil.

Robert Guyton
Candidate for Environment Southland

Get your garlic in!

We're told it's very dry throughout the region and I've not reason to disbelieve my hydrologist friends, but it's still possible to get drenched pushing my way through the herbage in my garden. Surface water just doesn't evaporate the way it might in warmer seasons. Tanks are running dry though, and the water trucks are delivering in Otatara and Riverton.
Read the rest of my  gardening article on the Green Gardener here.

Chairman's report - South Coast Environment Society Inc.

Been wondering what we've been up to in the Environment Centre over the past 12 months?
Read on...

Remembering everything that we have done over the past year would be quite a challenge, were it not for the Coastline Magazine in which our various activities over the last 12 months have been recorded. So that’s where I looked, using the on-line collection of Coastlines, and this is what I found.

We’ve been very busy more

Follow your duck

This afternoon we made fortune cookies. It wasn't very easy. To fold them effectively, you need cotton gloves. We braved the searing heat and did it bare handed, perhaps in the fashion of Chinese peasants.

The most fun was writing the 'fortunes'. You can find thousands of them online, but that's too easy. We wrote our own and they're quite inscrutable, involving ducks, wives, pots of gold and oxen.

I've been banned from posting a photograph of the first batches so instead have chosen a picture of the work of an expert. Perhaps later in the day, when the kitchen has cooled down a little, I'll slip one in.

Robin McNeill writes...

Southland Times - Letters to the Editor

No mining mandate

HOW can Mr Brownlee claim that New Zealanders have given the minerals sector a clear mandate to explore public conservation lands for mining (July 21) when 96 per cent of submissions were against his proposal to allow him to help the Minister of Conservation approve mining access on such such lands?
The only submission reported in the summary of submissions for the Longwoods called for that area to be protected from mining. There were actually more submissions seeking protection for the Longwoods, but the Summary of Submissions doesn't list submissions from individuals (including mine). No-one proposed mining in the Longwoods.
Mr Brownlee, read the writing on the wall. There is no mandate.
Robin McNeill, Invercargill.

And if I could just add,
THERE IS NO MANDATE MR BROWNLEE!

Water matters

"The solution to pollution is dilution." They were dead wrong, and because this slogan got put into practice far too often, some people and a much greater number of other living things ended up just plain dead. Dilute an environmental toxin all you want, and it’s a safe bet that a food chain somewhere will concentrate it right back up for you and serve it on your plate for breakfast.

Descriptions like this are the reason I read The Archdruid Report.

Dune figure

Moose at sunrise

Letter to the Times - kicking the tyres

John Key keeps talking about ‘kicking the tyres’ of this and that: selling Kiwibank, privatising schools, our water supplies, prisons and who knows what else.

Could someone please tell him that we‘ve had enough of his kicking?

He kicked the tyres of our national parks until New Zealanders told him to stop, now he’s kicking the tyres of more mining and drilling off-shore oil wells.

We‘re getting tired of it.

Moose star (did I hear a chainsaw?)

Spreading the word

Today I campaigned in the industrial area of Invercargill, giving out my leaflets in the offices and workshops of trucking firms, scrap metal yards, sign writing shops, courier depots and concreter's yards.
The reception I got was warm from everyone and I had some good conversations about the topics that seemed to be important to us all - water, coal, milk and oil.
I saw some awesome sights as well - the articulated claw that selects and lifts piles of girders, iron framing, car bodies and assorted ironmongery at the scrap metal yard, silos of ready-mixed concrete that fill the rotating-barrel concrete trucks, the landing deck where the trucks laden with vegetables and fruit unload their pallets every day, starting at 5, all busy.
In the afternoon I walked the streets of Windsor and didn't have to worry about getting crushed by a forklift or Mack truck.
The shop owners and staff were just as friendly there as the people I'd met in the morning.
It was a great day.

Southland

Frozen fish farms freed

I've a friend who's a diver on a salmon farm, who won't eat the fish he works amongst because of the dyes in the feed given to the fish.
Fish farming, where salmon are the major species involved, has been kept from expanding around our coasts by a 'freeze' since 2001.
That's all changed now, as this government opens the gates to dozens of applications for new aquaculture developments.
Aquaculture New Zealand sees a tripling in the size of the industry and billion$ in profit for it's aqua farmers.
Like dairying on the land, fish farming is set to spread like an oil spill.
In both cases, it's the waste that causes the environmental harm that both industries and the government are more than willing to look past it without flinching.
The public, curiously enough, have some concerns around the loss of access to bays and coastline that they've enjoyed recreationally, that the spread of fish farming will bring.
They might also have reservations about eating captively-raised fish, if they were better informed as to the practices around fish farming.
That debate should intensify as of now.

Endangered species in Japan - rice paddies and girls.

In July's Straight Furrow, Rachael Breckon, attendee at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries seminars...

discovers that Japan views its agriculture very differently from the way we do here in New Zealand.

Questioning the heavy subsidies that rice farmers receive, Rachael learned that the rice paddy field had multiple functions, one of the primary ones being: "They give a good feeling of rest and relaxation for the people".

Contrast that with our own 'hell for leather' pursuit of profits from the farm and you can feel Rachael's unease.

She discovered further, that the aging population in Japan, coupled with the lack of females in the younger population is resulting in a rapid deterioration in the rural workforce and the fields they manage.

As well, the system of 'successionship', where land can't be sold freely has meant that land is being walked away from and left to degrade, or at least become unproductive. 

Rachael describes the Japanese countryside as being a p[lace where, "hunched-over 60 year-olds hand prune the rice fields." 

She finishes by saying, " I would feel incredibly sad if the fields no longer existed because rice was not profitable and young people and young people continue to choose to play video games in box-sized apartments in the city".

This is not good.

Oil spill in Dalian, China

Five days ago, in the northeastern port city of Dalian, China, two oil pipelines exploded, sending flames hundreds of feet into the air and burning for over 15 hours, destroying several structures - the cause of the explosion is under investigation. The damaged pipes released thousands of gallons of oil, which flowed into the nearby harbor and the Yellow Sea.
 
This link has astonishing images of the disaster.
 

Soil creep

This is what frosts do to exposed soil. After the thaw, everything moves downhill and toward the sea.
Keep it on the land. Cover it with vegetation. It's more precious than gold (and lignite for that matter).

Gordon's poem

Teflon John and Simple Bill
Kicked New Zealand down the hill
Cutting up the corporate pie
New Zealand owner say good bye
While 'best practice' spews from the well
The national parks issue covers the smell
Rather green than black and sticky
Me thinks John Key is far too tricky

History in the making

Nightcaps letter box

I found this letterbox and fence at the entrance to a house in Nightcaps very interesting, given that the towns essential industry is coal mining. The homeowner chose black, coal black as the 'colour' scheme.

Perhaps this is the home of the mine manager.

Nightcaps

I'm there today.
All day.

National parks its mining plans - sort of...

Cath Wallace of ECO has this to say about the backdown from the Government and the situation that remains with the minister's blurred roles.

"The Government decision not to take areas from Schedule Four is welcome, but the Government decision to give the Minister of Energy and Resources effective control over mining access to conservation land was a major step backwards, the Environment and Conservation Organisations (ECO) said today.
ECO co-chair Cath Wallace said the decision on schedule 4 protected land is a victory for all those who made submissions, marched and signed petitions against the proposal to open up further conservation land to mining. “The government deserves credit for listening to them.”
“The Government should now listen to those submitters and not include the Minister of Economic Development (Gerry Brownlee) in making decisions on other conservation land.”
Ms Wallace said the process showed that neither Gerry Brownlee nor his Ministry understood the real values of conservation areas and the attachment New Zealanders have to it.

I would add, bluntly, get Brownlee's fingers out of the Environmental pie. You can tell by looking at him, what his intentions are.

Cycling for votes

I've had my billboards made (Thanks Creation Signs!) and they're ready to go out into the world.

No front lawn placements for me though, I'm fixing my signs onto the purpose-built trailer to follow on behind my bicycle as I pedal around the streets of Invercargill, Wallacetown, Bluff, Edendale and, with a bit of luck, Stewart Island.

Toot if you want (or if I'm riding funny!) 

Goodbye to mining the parks

You'd expect, given the huge anti-mining marches around the country and the anguish the prospect of digging up the national parks provoked, that an announcement of the reversal of National's ill-considered plans would hit the front page.

Nope.

The Southland Times has given the news a postage stamp sized spot on page 2, nestled amongst images of shoplifters, a cartoon and an advertisement for a closing down sale at a shoe store.

The 400 or so Southlanders who marched through the streets of Invercargill to protest the plans to mine the national parks might view that placement rather cynically.

Nevertheless, they'll be looking foward to the sight of Gerry Brownlee munching on his heapin' helpin' of humble pie, crow, hat, or whatever it is he'll be served up today.

I'm not expecting a skerrick of contrition though.

That's not the sort of man Gerry is.

Apocryphal headline

Overgrazing blamed for dead pastures

(Southland Times July 2)

Seed rush

The Emissions Trading Scheme and the increased costs that come with it is worrying horticulturalists.
Vegetable growers, already squeezed by supermarkets who, the growers say, pay very little for the produce and charge the customer a greatly marked-up price at the checkout, will now face greater costs to growing and transporting their vegetables and fruits to the point of sale.
For the receivers of their goods, that's us, it can mean an increase in the price, which seems very likely.
It may mean though, that local growers fold up under the increased demands on their finances. If they can't afford to pay more for trucking their goods to market, for the electricity that powers their packing sheds and for any other incoming materials needed for their operation, they may abandon the growing game altogether.
These increases will affect glass and tunnel house growers the most, with their greater need for energy, in the form of electricity, coal and gas. The desired effect of an ETS is to change greenhouse gas using behaviour and it may well work in this field, but I wonder if basic food production like this is an area we want to force change, especially if the change means fewer local growers and more imported food from countries that don't have to carry the same obligation.
The solution for the consumer is, of course, to grow your own and it is readily apparent to me, as a supplier of vegetable seed, that demand is considerably higher this winter than ever before. People are preparing for the results of the ETS and other changes; the GST hike, a frozen wage state and so on.
Time to start thinking about a little independence from the supermarkets, despite the season.

Keith Ng's ominous sign

Glass half-full (of what?)

“How many warnings does this Government need before they take action to set enforceable water quality standards? I urge the Minister to adopt the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management that is currently lying on his desk.”

The Green's Russel Norman puts the heat on the Government for what he calls, 'what we already know', “Intensive dairy farming, as well as inadequate sewage treatment, is responsible for the deterioration of our rivers, streams and lakes, the common heritage of all New Zealanders."

The due-out-soon Environment Southland report on water quality in our region is hardly likely to say anything other than, 'what we already know'. Nevertheless, we await the report optimistically, after all, they do say you can't manage what you haven't measured.