What about rising sea levels?

Tasman District Council have at last started on planning the district’s response to future sea level rise.  They have asked for community input.

Here’s a link to their web page.

They are treading carefully, which gives us the chance to let them know, right at the start of the process, what’s needed for the long term well-being of Waimea Inlet.

Their attention will inevitably be focused on the effects of sea level rise on the people of the District.  However, their increasing commitment to sustainability and environmental protection means that they are also likely to listen to and act on our concerns about the future health of the Inlet.

The Waimea Inlet Strategy says we will develop “a strategic response to maintain natural functions of the inlet and representative habitats, under changing conditions of sea level”.

So we have responded to the Council, explaining how the productive salt marsh and coastal margin vegetation can be given room to migrate inland as the sea level slowly rises.

You can read our response here.

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Draft Richmond Catchment Management Plan

Illustration in the draft Catchment Management Plan

After many years of preparation, Tasman District Council (TDC) has now announced a new holistic approach to managing stormwater in Richmond.

It aims to improve flood resilience as well as protect our waterways and the environment.  Since all of the town’s waterways flow into the Inlet, the quality of the flows directly affect it.

The Council has asked to Waimea Inlet Forum to provide feedback to the proposed plan.  We have responded with a submission.  You can read it here

Full details of the proposed Plan are on the TDC website:
https://tasman.govt.nz/my-council/public-consultation/current-consultations/draft-richmond-catchment-management-plan/

They take the form of a draft Richmond Catchment Management Plan and a draft Urban Stormwater Strategy, along with supporting documentation.  A district-wide urban stormwater discharge consent application will be publicly notified later.

The proposed water contamination risk objectives are:

A background report identifying existing stormwater quality and contamination risks was written in 2010.  It gives a lot of detail about the quality of the various streams and drains entering the Inlet and is worth reading.

See the video about the Battle for the Banded Rail

The Battle for the Banded Rail is focused on restoring birdlife to Waimea Estuary in Nelson. It’s built on thousands of hours of volunteer work. In 2017 over 250 volunteers contributed more than 1,500 hours of time – checking trap lines, planting, weeding and more…

Tracey Murray and Kathryn Brownlie were recently interviewed about the achievements by Predator Free NZ.

Check out the video and you’ll see how the enthusiasm of volunteers is making a big difference around the shores of the Inlet.

A big thanks to those of you who have been helping us with the Waimea Inlet Action Plan

Members of our Waimea Inlet Coordination Group have been working with the signatories of the Waimea Inlet Charter to plan specific future actions that need to be done to fulfil the hopes and aspirations in the Waimea Inlet Management Strategy.

Draft Action Plan

We have put together a draft Action Plan, and about fifty members of the Forum and interested individuals got together in a workshop to check through it.  We gathered lots of very useful feedback.  We also received a number of written comments.

Your comments

The many useful responses helped us to fine-tune the Plan.  A big thank you to all of you who have contributed.

It is a living document, so it is likely to be tweaked further as time passes, but this version is pretty well there.

Update as at May 2019

The plan has now been finalised, and the final version is here:
Waimea Inlet Action Plan 2018-2021.

We are now seeking formal endorsement from the signatories of the Charter.

Tasman District Council endorsed it in April, and Nelson City Council Planning and Regulatory Committee did so on 28 May.

You can read the newspaper report of the TDC meeting here

And the media release by NCC here