The Ōkuti and Ōkana Streams in Little River were added to Environment Canterbury's Living Streams programme in 2005 in response to calls to the pollution hotline and Environment Canterbury scientists reports. Environment Canterbury Resource Care staff walked the catchment in December 2005 and then presented information gathered from that stream walk and Environment Canterbury stream monitoring data to landowners adjacent to the rivers in 2006.
From there they formed the Little River Stream Care Group in 2007 and came up with a draft vision for their streams:
As a united community we work together to achieve common goals: Ōkuti Ōkana Planting Day October 2006.
- Clean water and enhanced habitat
- Care for our land
- Provide for functioning and stable waterways
- In an economic and sustainable manner, now and for the future
- Celebrate our successes
To achieve this vision, much of the work will involve fencing the waterway, sourcing alternative stock water, installation of reticulated stock water, planting and altering grazing management practices. In order to do these types of works, the willows lining the rivers and their tributaries firstly need deferred and then ongoing maintenance carried out. If this is not done prior to putting in fences and plants, there is the danger that these will be damaged or need to be removed when it comes to carrying out maintenance.
Therefore a working group with Environment Canterbury staff has been investigating the option of a proposed rating district in the area for the deferred and ongoing maintenance of willows. We hope to have a decision before Christmas 2008.
Update:
A working group of community representatives had recommended the formation of a Little River Rivers Rating District to help fund willow control and bank stability work. This work was needed to help prevent flooding and to enable effective fencing and restoration planting as part of Environment Canterbury's Living Streams project.
At a public meeting on 25 September 2008, a majority vote decided that a postal ballot should be held to determine support for the proposal of forming a Little River Rivers Rating District to help fund willow control and bank stability work. The public meeting set a threshold of 60% or greater of votes received for the rating district to go ahead. 425 ballot papers were sent out and 173 were returned. Of those, 97 were in support of the proposal, 69 were against and 7 were invalid.
Therefore a proposal to establish a Little River River Rating District to fund and co-ordinate river maintenance work on the Ōkuti and Ōkana rivers was narrowly defeated.
Environment Canterbury is considering how to proceed and aimed to be in contact with the community before the end of November 2008 to outline any options that might still be available.
If you would like to know more about this project or the Living Streams programme, please contact Environment Canterbury and ask for a Resource Management Cordination team member for your district.