Barkers Creek Catchment Group
Barkers Creek Catchment Group is actively working together to turn challenges into opportunities for transformation.
Barkers Creek rises in the rocky hill country located immediately north west of Geraldine. The catchment has unique challenges with slow water throughout and sensitive local soils and geology, which make it sensitive to the impacts of farming. This means it has some of the highest phosphorous levels of any waterway in Canterbury, as well as high nitrates in some springs.
Woodbury School visiting Barkers Creek
Physiographic maps, and technical advice from Land and Water Science and Torlesse Environmental have helped the group learn more about opportunities to reduce impact. All 17 catchment group members have completed comprehensive freshwater focused farm plans. In this way science, combined with a strong community enables Barkers Creek farmers to target actions where they make the most difference, and take control of their future, rather than guessing or taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
The catchment group have collaborated with Environment Canterbury to undertake a Dung Beetle Release which it is hoped will improve soil health and reduce farming impacts over time, and a large bioreactor has been installed, in partnership with ESR and DairyNZ, in a nitrate sensitive area of the catchment.
Dung Beetle release in Barkers Creek
The group also has big plans for biodiversity, partnering with the Geraldine community and the Department of Conservation on landscape-scale restoration, including predator trapping to protect long-tailed bat roosts, regenerating native bush blocks, and creating corridors of native riparian planting.
To find out more about Dung Beetles in New Zealand, or to view the Barkers Creek Nutrient Assessment, click the downloadable documents below.
