Science Centres: Freshwater

Riparian FAQs

Hawkes Bay Regional Council has found that some questions about riparian management these days come into a ‘frequently asked’ category. The council accumulated a list of such ‘FAQs’, and these were used to guide preparation of resources for a training workshop on targeted riparian management in Napier in May 2007.

NIWA’s input was to develop answers to the questions, creating a resource that is likely to be useful to land and water managers, policy makers, land owners, and the public.

Some examples of questions:

• How effective are marsh areas/wetlands in the upper catchment in stripping nutrients and where do they go?
• What width of protection is needed to stop, or significantly reduce, nutrient movement into the waterway?
• Is riparian fencing just a band-aid on the real problem – stocking densities & inappropriate fertiliser use?

Answers to these and other FAQs available at:
http://www.niwascience.co.nz/ncwr/tools