Enhancing Ellesmere Project Update
From Awareness to Action: Driving Sustainable Change in the Ellesmere Area
The enhancing Ellesmere project has made important strides in building awareness, fostering connections and engaging with our farming community and stakeholders. However, the time has come to move from education and awareness to more on-farm implementation and action plans. This new phase of the IFP project will place more emphasis on peer-to-peer learning, smaller targeted group work, demonstrations and practical farming activities that will provide evidence of a lighter environmental footprint.
First Step: Mapping Ellesmere’s Geology to Improve Water Management
ESAI and Land and Water Science (LWS) have been working to better understand the underlying geology of the Ellesmere area. This work included carrying out demonstrations of a new radiometric soil mapping system on four local properties.
This new technique involves running a quad bike mounted radiometric sensor over the farms – the sensor is essentially a super Geiger counter that detects gamma rays coming from the natural decay of elements such as Thorium, Caesium and Uranium emitted from the soil and sub soil.
This radiometric data enables the creation of much more accurate soil maps and help us understand how local geology and farming practices can impact or mitigate freshwater contamination risks in our various landscape zones.
The resulting detailed maps will help farmers refine irrigation, fertiliser use, and nutrient management to reduce environmental impacts.
On 14th March there will be a fieldday at a selection of the 27 the ground truthing soil pits where LWS will explain the results from the radiometric mapping and how farmers can use the data and the new soil maps in various IFP modules.
LWS is also using groundwater isotope data to track contamination sources and assess water quality implications. These insights will feed into a catchment report, identifying key nitrate sources affecting Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora and surrounding waterways.
This research is a crucial step in helping farmers with various IFP topics and more informed, sustainable land management decisions
For more information see here
Step Two: Mapping of Waterways and Drains within the Catchment
Rural Consulting have been tasked with the job of capturing data using drone footage along approximately 1000km of local waterways and drains throughout the area starting with the Jollies Brook catchment. This mapping will identify:
• Critical Source Areas
• Nitrogen Attenuation hotspots (damp low areas)
• Fences
• Native plantings
Using this mapping plus existing water quality data along with the information gathered by the Land and Water Science work will help to identify high risk or high opportunity areas within the catchment to focus on.
Once key areas have been identified then the next step will be to form smaller, sub catchment groups of farmers and work closely with them in tackling common issues with a focus on on-farm demonstrations and practical field days to identify ways to reduce impacts. It is hoped that by adopting this new format will help to encourage farmer engagement, increase the adoption of best farm practices and will have a measurable impact on the environment.
