Taumata Lagoon - Home to Gretel wetlands

January 2008

Drying out as a result of agricultural irrigation

In 1990, Neil and Sylvia Hayes and their family purchased a major part of the Taumata Lagoon, 9km from Carterton, Wairarapa, recognised as one of the last vestiges of natural, wild wetland in the Wairarapa, with an outstanding oxbow lagoon and a remnant block of native bush. The bush was logged in 1964, but in 1990 the Hayes family undertook a major native bush restoration programme and have now planted thousands of kahikatea, totara and native flax. 7.5 hectares are under a QEII covenant and the regional council earlier conferred the area, Key Native Ecosystem (KNE) status. The Hayes' Brown Teal Conservation Trust which is dedicated to captive-breeding and in-depth study programmes based on researching and recovery of pateke, is based here at the Gretel Lagoon wetlands.

About six years ago the regional council issued a water extraction and irrigation permit to the dairy farmer neighbouring the lagoon and two bores were sunk: one 80m from the lagoon and the other 120m away.

Mr Hayes QSM (no relation to Wairarapa MP John Hayes) was quoted in the Wairarapa Times Age in December as having said "No mention of the lagoon appeared anywhere in the permit documents. It was not until 2004, after two wet summers, that the destructive influences of the irrigation was first noticed and from then on the lagoon water level was monitored and recorded each day."

He said data gathered last year and this year shows millions of litres were taken from the lagoon in only a few weeks of irrigation for agricultural purposes. Neil and Syvlia have launched a nationwide campaign aimed at "embarrassing the regional council" into doing something to stop the slow death of the lagoon. They have written to the Prime Minister, leader of the Opposition, government ministers, local mayors, Fish and Game Council, Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society and many other organisations and media.

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