Silverstream Project – University of Canterbury, CAREX Initiative • Living Water

Designing and trialling solutions image – CAREX Team — Catherine Febria and Katie Collins of the Canterbury Freshwater Ecology Research Group (CAREX) monitoring the restored waterway on Richard and Jill Simpson's Fonterra farm, Silverstream, as part of an ongoing research collaboration with Living Water.

Silverstream Project – University of Canterbury, CAREX Initiative

About the project

Living Water has supported the University of Canterbury’s Canterbury Waterway Rehabilitation Experiment (CAREX) by providing grants for restoration trials undertaken at Silverstream in the Selwyn catchment (next to the Ararira-LII River catchment). CAREX is a region-wide experiment that is stakeholder-driven meaning farmers, councils, iwi and the public co-develop, co-design and trial solutions to rehabilitate freshwater ecosystems.

The results of these experiments can be scaled-up and applied across waterways in the Ararira-LII catchment, the Canterbury region, and potentially across New Zealand.

We’re looking at tools to try and address all these different things, and its multiple tools in multiple places and in different combinations.

Catherine Febria

Benefits

Reduced contaminants entering the Selwyn River and Te Waihora
Improved freshwater ecosystems
Scalable results

Dr Catherine Febria & Katie Collins at Silverstream — Doctor Catherine Febria and Katie Collins of the Canterbury Freshwater Ecology Research Group (CAREX) on Richard and Jill Simpson's Fonterra farm, Silverstream. The Silverstream waterway is part of a group of nine waterways that CAREX been working on with farmers and trialling different solutions.

Progress

Experiments relating to sediment management, nutrient reduction, weed management and restoration at the Silverstream site in Springston were carried out between 2014-2018
Results and toolbox handouts developed from the experiments can be found at www.carex.org.nz
Lessons learnt are being applied to Living Water’s on-farm and water network projects in the Ararira-LII catchment and the Waituna catchment in Southland.

Living Water was able to help boost some on the ground actions that we needed. They’ve done a great job of actually bringing the community along on the journey with us so we can focus on the science and we’ve just been able to work to each other’s strengths.

Catherine Febria