Greening the Mckenzie
Fri, 05 Feb 2010 2:52 pm – Posted by Mandy | 5 Comments
Blogger: Mandy Herrick, Web Manager for Forest & Bird
The march of pivot irrigators through some of our most iconic landscapes continues unabated. New territorities are being sought everyday - and drylands are being dressed up in lush pasture and filled with cows.
Several applications to green our russet brown McKenzie country are currently before Environment Canterbury. In order to see what we’d be losing, we travelled through this stunning downy landscape and spoke to people about how they felt about the impending transformation of the Mckenzie.
Please note: If you want to watch a longer version of this video, see here
To view the full length interview with Brian Turner, go here
Eco -action! Send John Key a e-card.
P.S I’d like to pass on my thanks to some of the people who helped in the making of this video - Anne from Alpine Recreation, Karl Z, Julie Barry, Natasha Turner and Garth. All the photos featured in the piece were taken by Gottlieb Braun Elwert.
Mandy
Great little vid. Very evocative. Interesting hearing someone challenge the idea that “doing something” is alway progress. A lot of has been done in NZ in the name of progress now looks like desecration. To get it in perspective though, what proportion of the MacKenzie Basin is under threat?
Just one point - could you please text on a little longer. Slow readers like me only got about half way through each of the later headings.
Well done, this is a fantastic video, My Family and I have all grown up in this landscape, which is engrained in our lives, We camp, Ski, Kayak, walk, Hunt, Laugh work and Live amongst it everyday. We love it the way it is, the way it always has been, and the way it always should be, We should make the desisions our Grandfathers would be proud of.
This video would be fantastic to get onto Close up or Cample live. Well done and Thanks.
I used to enjoy the drive through the MacKenzie Basin but now I just find it depressing.
The term “not naturally sustainable” sums it up completely. I live on the West Coast of the South Is, where rainfall is abundant. However, I would dispute whether farming methods here would be entirely sustainable either. The problem is leaching of nutrients, so replacement of them has to be done artificially. Again, as pointed out for the MacKenzie Country, this ends up in our waterways, so the eventual effect must more far reaching than the farm boundary. Such is our insistance to push the land far beyond what it is naturally capable of, for the sake of what will mostly go to highly processed milk solids, for foods that are really not primary needs for human consumption. How about just get a neighbourhood cow to share, and everyone cut down on dairy product consumption (and get rid of highly processed food products)
It just seems crazy to be watering these areas. Have we not watched what has happened to land in Australia where these massive irrigation systems have “stuffed” the soil?
The vast brown landscape should stay as this is what makes the Central South Island so unique when compared to the just over the main divide where tourist and locals know how wet and green it can be.