Friends of the Maitai

11/06/2026

A pithy message on the river track. As well as being a smelly mess for pedestrians, rain makes dog poo run into the river - not nice!

02/06/2026

Heavy rain overwhelms Nelson wastewater system, raw sewage flows into river and estuary.

Heavy downpours caused a wastewater pipe to burst, sending sewage into nearby waterways.

27/05/2026

An excellent example of a community lead initiative achieving long term results with all stakeholders participating and working towards common goals. Councils should be taking the lead and adopting a similar action plan to deal with land use issues specific to their regions..... Maybe a similar model could be developed for the Motueka Catchment which was severely impacted by the recent heavy rain event.

Thank you RNZ

Innovation at a grand scale is how the judges in this year's Beef and Lamb awards described the work being done by the Tairawhiti Whenua Charitable Trust.

05/05/2026

We're shocked to hear Nelson City Council is planning to remove Climate and Environment as a Strategic Priority from the Long Term Plan at this Thursday's Council meeting.

Friends of the Maitai has just written this to [email protected] and you're welcome to lift anything from it to add your voice.

We are writing ahead of Thursday’s vote on the 2027 Long Term Plan. We are quite dumbfounded that after having the environment and climate as a Strategic Priority in the 2018, 2021 and 2024 Long Term Plans, this priority has been dropped from the draft Strategic Priorities for the decade ahead from 2027. This in spite of Nelson resident surveys consistently showing the most important activity of Council is looking after the environment.

Over recent years, Council has made significant and commendable investments in the health and resilience of the Maitai catchment. Initiatives such as retiring forestry land, installing the aerator in the Maitai Dam, and supporting riparian planting have demonstrated a clear commitment to protecting water quality and ecological integrity. These actions reflect an understanding that environmental stewardship is not optional - it is foundational to the well-being of our community.

At the same time, Nelson ratepayers are already bearing the financial burden of climate-related impacts. Recent flooding events, widely understood to be intensified by climate change, have required substantial public expenditure, with ratepayers being levied to cover the costs of the 2022 event. Removing climate as a strategic priority risks sending a signal that these costs can be managed without addressing their underlying drivers.

We are also mindful of the broader social context. Increasing evidence of climate change impacts has many in our community, particularly younger people, expressing deep concern and even despair about the future. Local government has an important role in providing leadership, setting direction, and maintaining public confidence that these challenges are being taken seriously.

Retaining environment and climate as strategic priorities ensures continuity, accountability, and a clear framework for decision-making. It aligns Council’s long-term planning with both past investments and future risks, while reinforcing Nelson’s reputation as a community that values and protects its natural environment, for recreation, biodiversity and for tourism.

16/04/2026

When will there be good news....

Scientists worry that the often-long time lags between cause and effect when it comes to polluting our lakes and rivers will give politicians the excuse not to do anything about it

11/04/2026

Not surprising - but disappointing all the same.

Recent figures showed many rivers and groundwaters were affected by pathogens or nitrate levels that could pose risks to human health.

31/03/2026

Interesting last weekend visiting family in Ngaio to drop in on an awareness session with Wellington Mountains to Sea and the local climate action group. They had a fish hazard game very similar to ours!

10/03/2026

Newsroom consistently does the hard stories.

Comment: The legal threshold for ‘unconscionable conduct’ is deliberately high — but so too are the repercussions of forestry on Tairāwhiti’s most fragile land, writes Manu Caddie.

25/02/2026

Another case where scientists such as Dr Mike Joy were not heeded on their warning regarding intensive dairying and nitrates. Not a problem for the Maitai River, but of interest in terms of the failure to prioritise river health by successive governments.

Widespread degradation of Southland’s drinking water safety has been exposed in a council-commissioned report. The Environment Southland report...

25/02/2026

Back-to-back floods last winter caused extensive damage to farms and rural properties, with crops inundated with silt, fences washed away and land lost to swollen rivers.