Between the Domes Catchment Group
Mossburn, Five Rivers, Lumsden, Lintley, Castlerock and everywhere else in between.
Group Co-Chairs
Peter Sim
Angela Reid
Alex Field
Group coordinator
Clare Officer
For more info, or to join the catchment group contact Clare
027 371 9791 or clare@thrivingsouthland.co.nz
Number of members in the CG
There are a core group of 8-10 on the ‘committee’ with a mailing list and facebook group with well over a 100 members. The group meets about 4 times a year and also organise one or two events throughout the year.
Date the Catchment Group started
The group started in 2017, with the first events held in 2018. Initially the group was supported by Landcare Trust, Beef and Lamb NZ, DairyNZ and ES before the formation of Thriving Southland.
Types of people in the group
The group encompasses sheep, beef, dairy and arable farmers as well as good representation from both the Lumsden and Mossburn townships. It really is a whole community group.
Purpose, Mission and Values
Purpose
Engage, Educate, Enhance. Engaging with the community and all those who live in it while increasing environmental understanding for positive change.
Mission
Positively influencing good management practices community wide to ensure longevity of healthy landscapes, lifestyles and businesses to live and play in.
Values
Intergenerational and custodial thinking for living on the land
Transparency of farming systems and their impacts
Connecting communities and people
Pride in our surrounding and recreational opportunities
Safe and secure community to live and play in
Events
June 2024 - Wetland visit to Dot and Jeff Stevens beautiful man-made wetland
June 2024 - Winter wellbeing event held at the Lumsden Hall with guest speaker Jack Cocks, talking about resilience in the farming world, and Hamish McMurdo from Recycle South.
July 2023 – Community lunch event to brainstorm ideas for what next for the group
June 2023 – Winter Wellbeing event at Mossburn with netballer Wendy Frew and the Southland Rural Support Trust
May 2023 – Balewrap Recycling and collection Pilot launch (ran through until August 2023)
December 2022 – Launch of the project booklet and wetland Field Day at Five Rivers
November 2022 – The group won an ES Award for Environmental Action in Water Quality
July 2022 – Winter Wellbeing Event with Derek Daniell from Wairere Rams and Tom Slee from Surfing for Farmers
June 2023 – Wetland Planting afternoon at project wetland site
December 2021 – celebrated the end of the year with a community planting session and BBQ
July 2021 – held the first Wellbeing speaker event with Prof Keith Woodward and Dr Murray Pfieffer
2021 – saw the start of two major projects
Balewrap Recycling Project – ‘Providing a link in the bale wrap chain’ in conjunction with AgRecovery
Understanding the dynamics of the Catchment project which involved 3 work streams
Catchment Landholder Survey
Wetland siting, designs and costings in conjunction with NIWA
Between the Domes Catchment Booklet
December 2020 – Ran a Christmas Wetlands Tour
November 2020 – Hosted Roger Dalrymple for a ‘Strong Catchment Groups, Strong Communities’ Event
Early 2020 – Discussions began around project ideas and funding which resulted in the groups big project Understanding and Improving Catchment with Wetland Development
December 2019 – Hosted the official launch of Thriving Southland
May 2019 – field day focusing on Intensive Winter Grazing
November 2018 – field day looking at the impact of farm management on extensive hill country and possible solutions
July 2018 – community meeting to build engagement and decide direction
Projects
Describing, Understanding and Improving the Between the Domes Catchment with Wetland Development
In July 2021 the group secured funding from Thriving Southland for a major project – the project had three main objectives:
Knowing the landholders and operators and understanding the catchment in its current state
Use the skills of NIWA combined with local farmers to site and design wetlands and sediment/nutrient capture structures for most cost-effective environmental effect.
Produce an electronic and physical booklet detailing the catchment.
These were broken down into three workstreams for the project:
Catchment Landholder Survey
As a relatively new Catchment Group with high diversity of land use, Between the Domes is yet to achieve full engagement with landholders, land managers and the residents of Lumsden and Mossburn. A draft survey has been developed that will be used to establish key contacts for the 135 landholders/managers, and some baseline information in regard to the property, land use, waterbodies, wetlands, riparian vegetation, flora and fauna, and nutrient management. The survey will be carried out on the phone by locals who are familiar with the catchment and with farming.Working with wetland experts from National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) to provide a catchment overview that will help identify areas of focus
This task includes looking at restoration of existing wetlands, establishment of new strategically located small to medium scale wetlands or mitigations and small-scale wetlands or edge-of-field mitigations dealing with tile drains and paddock sediments.A Between the Domes catchment booklet that will provide a coherent overview on the catchment and its features in relation to land and water.
This booklet will provide people living and working in the catchment with a point of reference to lift their understanding of the catchment and to serve as a baseline status report for the community.
Project Outcomes:
The booklet that was produced and the survey results provide a baseline for the community to benchmark against over time.
The survey helped engage with a large number of landholders in the catchment with a total of 71 respondents.
The wetland workstream has helped upskill not only the project farmers who had designs done but also the wider catchment group with wetland field days and planting days, plus ongoing following of these projects.
The group are hoping to be able to share some of their findings on an information board in the Lumsden township to further the engagement in the project.
Balewrap Recycling Project
Balewrap waste and recycling have been close to the groups heart for a long time so in 2021 they started a project looking at ways they could help provide a link in the balewrap recycling chain to enable easier pathways for farmers to get balewrap recycled.
They started with a farmer and contractor survey to help understand the scale of the issue ie. how much balewrap was really being used and then how people were currently disposing of it and their current attitudes and practices towards recycling.
Through this process the group developed links with the AgRecovery programme and with Southern DisAbility Enterprises (now called Recycle South), who were in the process of setting up a recycling plant for soft plastics at Makarewa.
This project has been a slow burner with many stakeholders and hurdles to jump but after huge amounts of collaboration between the group, AgRecovery, Recycle South and Northern Southland Transport in May 2023 a pilot programme was launched to collect balewrap from farms and deliver it to the recycling plant in Makarewa – meaning the plastic was being recycled right here in Southland.
The pilot project was a huge success with over 570T of plastic delivered to Recycle South over the three-month pilot period, demonstrating the benefits of such an initiative.
The group are now working with Northern Southland Transport to try and replicate this pilot on a user pays basis.
Wellbeing Evenings
Winter 2024 - Jack Cocks & Hamish McMurdo
Knowing your purpose, connecting and taking care of your wellbeing. These are all steps that help set you up to be resilient and allow you to thrive in the face of adversity, according to Kellogg scholar Jack Cocks. Jack joined the group at the end of June to share his story, following a near death experience, which started his own journey of resilience and sparked his interest in this area. He went on to undertake a Kellogg project looking at ‘How Resilient Farmers Thrive in the Face of Adversity’. His interactive presentation had the room engaged and thinking about their own purpose and resilience, and how they might be able to enhance this.
Following a delicious supper we then heard from Hamish McMurdo who shared the inspiring story of Recycle South, from supporting employees with disabilities to recycling balewrap right here in Southland. Between the Domes have been big supporters of the recycling initiative and it was great to have Hamish join them for this fun social evening.
Winter 2023 – Wendy Frew and Southland Rural Support Trust
Following on from the two previous successful winter events the group decided to share the love with a change of venue to the Mossburn Community Centre. They also joined up with the Southland Rural Support Trust with the aim of also being able to raise some money for them on the night.
Netball legend Wendy Frew was our speaker for the night and entertained us with her story, from a humble southland upbringing to national and international fame with the Southern Steel and Silver Ferns. We were also joined by Rachael Nicholson and Lindsay Wright who shared about the role of the Southland Rural Support Trust and the awesome work they do in the community.
Chair Peter Sim had gathered an amazing array of raffle prizes from some very generous local sponsors and the group were delighted to donate the proceeds from this to Rachael and Lindsay on the night. Thanks to the sponsors of these raffles Hanks Place, Silver Fern Farms, Vet South (Lumsden Shop), Northern Southland Transport, Rabobank and Pios Fiodh (Tom Law).
Winter 2022 – Derek Daniell & Tom Slee
This year the group invited Derek Daniell from Wairere Rams to share his farming journey and thoughts on the state of agriculture, followed by local boy Tom Slee to talk about his involvement in Surfing for Farmers, and his recent experience taking part in the Godzone Adventure Race.
Another well attended event organised by the group. It was great to hear from group leaders Jim Andrew and Laurie Selbie regarding what the group has been up to over the last year and hear some snippets of the results from the groups big catchment survey. Watch this space for more details on this with a field day coming later in the year.
Winter 2021 – Prof. Keith Woodford & Dr Murray Pfiefer
The group invited well respected Professor Keith Woodford to present to the group on greenhouse gasses and agriculture. And then heard from Dr Murray Pfiefer in his role as Chair of the Southland Charity hospital about its reasons for being, and the inspirational way the community has taken matters into their own hands to make a difference.
This was a really well attended informative evening and a great excuse to leave the house on a cold winters night.
Making the news
In 2022 the group won the Environment Southland Award for Environmental Action in Water Quality, this award recognised their achievements as a well establish group and the great work that went into their project Understanding and Improving the Catchment with Wetland Development. A well deserved celebration for this hard working group.
Thriving Southland is a community-led group with a vision to create a prosperous Southland, healthy people, healthy environment from the mountains to the sea.
CONTACT US
25 Don Street,
Invercargill 9810
