It was great to see so many out and about for the Great Otago South Ice Cream Tour. We had fabulous weather and enjoyed catching up with you all. It was a privilege and great fun to have Pat Macaulay from the Otago Rural Support Trust along as well. Many thanks to Carmen from Mr Whippy for coming down and having a sense of adventure for van parking! We hope you all enjoyed getting off farm for a treat and a catch up. We visited 8 sites in total and had over 250 people along.

Tuapeka Catchment Group:
Many thanks to Otago Catchment Community for their funding to support the Tuapeka Catchment Group with more riparian planting at the Lawrence Gymkhana Grounds in December. This supplements the planting we did here with Lawrence school earlier in the year.  We will update you with progress photos as the plants grow. 

New Catchment Groups:
We have had some interest in a couple of new catchment groups in the area. We have had initial meetings in the Puerua/Waitepeka catchments and this group is keen to explore more water quality information for their next meeting. We have also got interest in a Clutha Lowlands group for those that are on the short catchments that lead directly to the Clutha main stem. This group is looking at willow management as one of their first projects. Please let us know if you would like to learn more about either of these groups. 

We are able to do some stream habitat and riparian planting sessions with school groups in the Clutha area. Let us know if you think your local  school is keen to be involved and we can find a good local spot to look for bugs and critters, and do some planting too. If your community group might be interested in this, let us know as we may be able to help you too. 

We have completed two rounds of water testing so far, one on 13 December and again on 8 February. We will continue to test regularly and will have the information available for catchment group meetings . We will also be completing macroinvertebrate assessments at 18 locations and taking environmental DNA samples in the coming months to get a good assessment of what lives in our streams and rivers. 

We are currently confirming locations for our riparian planting, wetland and sediment traps and bank reconstruction sites.

If you are planning on undertaking any of these activities at your place, let us know as we may be able to help. This could include advice, funding or connecting you with others that can help too. This project may be able to help with sourcing plants, planting and maintenance.

4-5 May
Location to be confirmed  

 

• General drone use for farms (monitoring, mustering etc)
• Thermal- for finding livestock, hunting, and pest control
• Mapping
  • 3D Map reconstructions
  • Multispectral mapping-showing plant health
  • Lidar capabilities for 3D reconstruction and the ability of creating a surface model through vegetation
• The capabilities of a 30 litre spray drone. 

Stand alone community courses will be held in partnership with Telford Campus 8th, 22nd and 29th April.  
Registration details to be confirmed. 


Morning: Native tree propagation -Practical session (limited to 10 people per day) 

1. Seed processing
2. Seed dormancy
3. Seed sowing- practical
4. Seed pricking out and aftercare tips

Afternoon: Riparian Planting - Practical session (limited to 20 people per day)

1. Site selection
2. Species to use 
3. Planting plan 
4. Maintenance and tips