Farming destroys wetlands

If you live in Southland you'll probably know that much of the network of wetlands that once graced the plains, are gone. Most of the wetlands that served for millenia to protect the environment from scouring and flooding were drained by farmers as they sought to convert a vibrant mahi nga kai resource into production pasture. The consequences of that clearing has been devastating to many  components of the broader environment; fish, birds and people, not to mention plants and untold trillions of smaller players. I've been involved for many years in the protection of a wetland that was snatched from the jaws of the dairy giant; bought, fenced and managed to keep it functioning as it should and so the article in today's Southland Times caught my eye immediately and held my attention throughout. It's the story of a wetland and its saviour, Tony Reiger who similarly turned the dairy 'machine' from its path of wetland destruction and saved his wetland, Big Lagoon from ruination. Sadly, Tony's moving on and the future of the wetland is uncertain. It's protected by a QEII covenant, but not by Tony for much longer. Tony says:
"If there was no lagoon, house or covenant on this land, I could get top dollar from the dairy industry but this land deserves to be protected for future generations."
I couldn't agree more. The article continues,"Originally the lagoon covered an area of 17 hectares, but after major drainage efforts were made by dairy farmers in the rearly 1980's to expand grazing lands, all that remained in 2003 when he brought the property was a mudhole one hectare in size."

"Big lagoon's destruction was not unique. It was a casualty of an ongoing war from industry, farming and other factors against wetlands all across New Zealand." Mr Reiger said.

Tony's efforts have been Herculean and I'm grateful to him for it. Now, if we can just spread his enthusiasm for wetlands right across the region, we'd be starting to redress some of the wrongs inflicted upon the landscape in the name of progress and private property rights. 

Catlins wetland destroyed

Marty @ mars 2 earth has unearthed this disturbing news of the death of a wetland in the Catlins.
I've linked to his blog here and encourage you to read his findings.