Source: Radio New Zealand
Somerview Farm’s Campbell Sommerville (left) and Ashburton Forks Catchment group facilitator Will Wright look through a net scoop’s worth of river flora and fauna. RNZ/Anisha Satya
Remnant wetlands are hard to come by in Canterbury.
Since the mid-1800s, nearly 90 percent of the area’s original natural environment has been lost, according to [file:///C:/Users/asatya/Downloads/Ausseiletal2008WONIwetlands_All_Final.pdf a 2008 Manaaki Whenua – Landcare research paper.]
Environment Canterbury’s principal biodiversity advisor for wetlands, Jason Butt, said Canterbury experienced some of the highest levels of historic wetland loss, largely due to drainage and land use change.
So when Baden and Judith Sommerville found naturally seeded snow tussock and mānuka on their Springburn farm, they knew it was worth protecting.
“It used to be summer grazing when the family first took over this farm in 2013,” son Campbell Sommerville said, looking out over the now six-hectare wetland.
“Come springtime… you do get woken up by the birds before you get woken up by an alarm around here.”
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Somerview Farm’s Campbell Sommerville and Sonja Vreugdenhil. RNZ/Anisha Satya
The wetland discovery began the first of many long-term restoration projects on Somerview Farm, continued by Campbell Sommerville and his fiancée Sonja Vreugdenhil today.
Planting streams, carrying out monthly water quality checks, and culling pests are routine for the pair.
Hares are a major issue, making light work of native shrubs which have been planted in the wetlands and around streams, Sommerville said.
“If one farm does a good hunt, and gets rid of a lot, they just come in from neighbouring farms.
“That’s why the catchment’s working so hard on pests.
“If everyone’s doing it around [us] we’re more likely to get on top of them, and [protect] the investment we’re putting into the natives and the wetlands.”
Will Wright added: “The possum doesn’t know that your farm ends there and starts there.”
Ashburton Forks Catchement group facilitator Will Wright out at Somerview Farm. RNZ/Anisha Satya
He is the facilitator for the Ashburton Forks catchment group, a collective of farmers working to manage and improve the health of their waterways, like the Sommervilles and Vreugdenhil.
Formed in 2023, the 28 group members manage 11,000 hectares of land within the Forks area, Staveley and Alford Forest.
The Ashburton Forks catchment area. Supplied/Will Wright
Among the jobs Wright does is trap-setting on properties and facilitating water quality tests, such as nitrate tests or eDNA (environmental DNA) tests, which discern which creatures are present in certain waterways.
He also helps connect farmers who are newer to restoration work with those who’ve been doing it for decades – like Mark and Jenny McDonald.
Mark and Jenny McDonald farm a herd of dairy Shorthorn and Friesian cows. RNZ/Anisha Satya
The pair own Red Cow Farm, a unique milking shorthorn and friesian operation on the north branch of the Ashburton River.
They’ve been planting out their property’s streams and wetlands with native flora since 2008.
“All this was gorse and broom; the whole stream was sort of clogged up with weeds,” Mark said.
“I’ve always been interested in native trees, and I love a project.”
With native seedlings not often found at the garden shop in 2008, Mark found himself wandering the foothills to source his own. Almost 20 years later, the stream bed takes care of itself.
Mark McDonald has made it his life’s work to plant the stream through his farm with natives, and bring back the native bird life. RNZ/Anisha Satya
“It’s just a really nice feeling when you come down here now, with things established.”
The McDonalds’ efforts have brought back some native wildlife: eels and Canterbury galaxiids have been spotted in the wetland, and fantails often flit around the planting.
“We haven’t got natives back here, apart from the fantails and warblers. I look forward to the day when we get tui and bellbirds and maybe wood pigeons.
“That’ll take time, but I’m sure it will happen.”
That will come with more planting and continued pest control – assisted by automatic traps he secured through the catchment.
Will Wright (left) and Mark McDonald test an automatic trap. RNZ/Anisha Satya
“We’ve got a couple of grandkids now, and every time they come out to stay, we have to come down and check the traps to see if there’re any, what do they call them? Dirty rotten scoundrels.”
Over its three years, the catchment has culled around 6500 pests.
Massive progress, but for Mark McDonald, this restoration work is only the beginning of a long environmental journey – one that will outlast him, and be passed on to future generations.
“Right back at the start, I planted a matai down in amongst the willows there,” he said. “A matai has a juvenile stage of about 60 years.
“I’m not planting for our own satisfaction, it’s for the future.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand