FAQ

At RRCC, we:

• Monitor water and soil health
• Enhance and promote biodiversity
• Engage local catchment communities
• Advocate sustainable land use

These efforts aim to maintain a balanced ecosystem, ensuring a harmonious balance between human activities and a flourishing environment. You can read more about this here.

Rangitīkei Rivers Catchment Collective covers three river catchments in the Horizons Regional Council area: Turakina, Rangitikei and Whangaehu.

There are approximately 2,800 farms in the catchment and the catchment area covers approx. 700,000 hectares.

We currently have twenty-three sub-catchment groups. We have around 170 paid members, representing 220,000 plus ha across the Rangitikei, Turakina and Whangaehu rivers catchment.

Around 88 water samples are collected and sent to Central Environment Laboratories (CEL), a government approved agency each month. These samples are tested for Nitrate, Soluble Inorganic Nitrogen, Dissolved Reactive Phosphorous, Turbidity, and E.Coli.

We aim to collect 3 to 5 years of water quality data so we can tell the story of what is happening in our rivers and help reduce uncertainty and support farm decision making and compliance planning.

Results from water quality sampling are used to pinpoint potential issues and trends that may appear in water bodies requiring further investigation and to measure the progress of our on-farm efforts.

We do monthly water quality testing at 88 sites across our 23 sub-catchment groups.

Three to five years of consistent monitoring is required before we can do an in-depth analysis which will help us identify where to concentrate our efforts and identify impacted water bodies that need further investigation.

This data acts as a baseline to accurately measure the efforts farmers are making on their properties.

Rangitikei Rivers Catchment Collective (RRCC) collects and analyses  water samples from the  Rangitikei, Turakina and Whangaehu river catchments to help local communities better understand their environment and motivate informed changes.

Waterways have diverse starting conditions, such as soil type, rainfall, topography, and land use making comparisons between different catchments unhelpful and misleading.  Most tributaries monitored by RRCC exhibit good water quality with sediment being the primary issue. However, a few tributaries are concerning, and catchment groups are targeting improvements there.

RRCC plans to share water quality data with Horizons once we have robust data, needing three to five years data to account for seasonal changes and reliable trends.

RRCC does not publicly release data for several reasons:

• The information has real significance to the immediate community.
• Good water quality data analysis is complex and technical.
• There is a perception of risk and fear associated with sharing what may be challenging results, especially without a rigorous investigation, background, or explanation. Water quality information is inherently vulnerable to misinterpretation and misuse that could result in hostility towards individuals or communities, financial harm, and a loss of trust.
• Drawing conclusions without applying rigorous investigation or recognising the limitation of the natural state of a waterway is poor practice.

The cost of water monitoring is not solely funded by grants from the Ministry for Primary Industry;   RRCC members also contribute significantly through subscriptions and volunteering.  The water monitoring results belong to the catchment groups and access to these results is at their discretion.  If you would like further information or to request access to the data, you can email admin@rrcc.oc.nz.

RRCC is funded from government and regional council grants and membership fees.

Current funding includes grants via the Ministry for Primary Industries Productive and Sustainable Land Use (PLSLU) package and the Integrated Farm Planning package, along with a grant from Horizons Regional Council via the Konorau Koiora Taketake – Indigenous Biodiversity Community Grant.

• Meet and connect with your neighbours and others in your local catchment community.
• Be part of a platform to lead positive change while working with social pressures and regulatory requirements – A collective voice is stronger than an individual one.
• Growing environmental and animal welfare imperatives imposed by society, through government on agriculture, has created the need for farmers to work together to get ahead of where society wants them to be. Our mission is to help farmers to get ahead of societies expectations.
• Help collect the evidence that tells the story of water quality, biodiversity, and emissions in your catchment.
• Working together as a community helps create a greater sense of purpose and makes meeting increasing compliance less of a tick-box exercise and more about making a positive difference.

RRCC funding is currently mostly from grant funding. This requires us to have some “skin in the game” as a show of commitment from members for co-funding from government and other sources to support change. Membership fees will also help to ensure self-sustainable sub-catchment groups in the long-term.

Joining a catchment group is easy! Simply fill out the ‘Join a catchment group’ form here and we will be in contact as soon as practicable.

For more information, please email admin@rrcc.co.nz.

RRCC is seeking funding support for these environmental restoration projects:

• Whio (blue duck) protection and restoration
• Dwarf Galaxiid native fish protection and restoration
• Native bush remnant protection
• Water quality monitoring – Macroinvertebrate and eDNA water sampling and analysis
• Establish a community nursery to grow natives or poplar poles

Your funds will go towards:

• Gathering environmental data
• Animal and plant pest management
• Fostering collaborative thinking
• Closing the knowledge gap
• Driving on-farm innovation

You can read more about this on our Partner with us page.

Becoming an RRCC partner is easy! Simply fill out the ‘Partner with us’ form here and we will be in contact as soon as practicable.