Do you want to build a wetland? We can help!
One of the priorities across the catchment is to build and enhance existing wetlands as a resilience opportunity. We aim to construct 3 new small wetlands that do not need consent before 31 March 2024. If you have a property in the Motueka catchment and would like to take advantage of this opportunity, please click here to register.
We will then consider your application. If you have trouble filling in the form, please get in touch, or just send us your name and address.
Background information
All farms have existing wet areas or old drained wetlands that are lowly productive and could easily and cheaply be reinstated into a filtering wetland. We want to establish more sites to demonstrate this in the Moutere and Motueka catchments this upcoming summer and we are looking for landowners willing to have a go at this.
NZ Landcare Trust (NZLT) and Fish and Game constructed a wetland last summer on a sheep and beef farm in the Motueka Catchment and demonstrated that a 0.7 ha wetland that did not need a consent cost $3300 (cost of earthworks).
Wetlands not needing a consent are those not directly connected to streams but are at the base of hills or connect via the flood plain during high stream flows. It is these high flows that contain the sediment, E. coli. and phosphate and these flow into the wetland for treatment. To qualify for not needing a consent they also can’t be an existing wetland or contain significant wetland vegetation.
Last summer NZLT developed an online resource to help landowners to identify these locations on their farms. This resource also includes good advice on how they can be built. Our aim is to collaborate with landowners, TDC, people with diggers, and build a few wetlands with the $10,000 funding we have for each of the Motueka (from TDC and MCC) and Moutere catchments (from Westpac) and thereby provide proof of concept that could be extended throughout Tasman catchments and the country.
This will demonstrate the feasibility of creating wetlands that filter out nutrients.
Larger wetland projects
We are also interested in hearing from people wanting to build larger wetland projects that will need a consent. About 2-3 per year can be built under the TDC global wetland consent. We may be able to find funding to support landowners to either enhance existing wetlands or build larger ones.