Partnership with the University of Canterbury

Catherine and Katie — 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.

About the project

Living Water has been working with the University of Canterbury’s School of Biological Sciences since 2014, and have provided grants for the Canterbury Waterway Rehabilitation Experiment (CAREX). This region-wide experiment is stakeholder-driven, meaning farmers, councils, iwi and the public co-develop, co-design and trial solutions to rehabilitate freshwater ecosystem health. Our grant helped with trials undertaken at the Silverstream site in the Selwyn catchment (next to the Ararira-LII River catchment).

In 2017, we formalised our strategic partnership with the University to work with them on transforming agricultural drains into healthy waterways across New Zealand. This partnership will enable the research, knowledge and experience developed through the CAREX experiment to be up-scaled and applied across waterways in our five Living Water catchments.

In lab — Katie Collins and Kristy Hogsden monitoring results back in the Canterbury University lab.

Benefits

Mutually beneficial sharing of expertise and resources
Economies of scale and efficiencies
Increased freshwater habitat and ecological health in our catchments

Progress

Detailed planning and design for CAREX implementation on-farm in the Ararira-LII River catchment

Testing stream — 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.

Local Canterbury Partnership Implementation

Started in 2014 and ended in December 2017

Progress: 100%

0 100