Clean Lakes Inc

Te Arawa FoMA to promote biological farming systems

PRESS RELEASE (13 June 2011)
Te Arawa FoMA to promote biological farming systems

Te Arawa Federation of Maori Authorities (FoMA) is investigating biological farming systems for its member organisations.

Te Arawa FoMA is the largest cluster of Trusts & Incorporations in the Rotorua District. Te Arawa FoMA’s goal is to help its members advance their aspirations for economic development, in a manner that is mindful of and does not compromise with the receiving environment, which Maori culture is historically known for.

Many Maori owned trust lands are used for farming and are on either Lakes or rivers catchments. In recent years, nutrient leaching from farming has been an issue in these areas.

The Rotorua Lakes and Land Trust (RLLT) – a joint venture between Te Arawa FoMA and Rotorua/Taupo Province of Federated Farmers – has set up the Vallance Project which explores how biological farming systems can play a role in reducing nitrate leaching from farms, while keeping farming profitable. The project has been operational since August 2010 in Reporoa. A similar research project was set up in two farms in Edgecumbe recently.

“Maori community believes in sustainable management of our land, water and forest resources; it is based on the tradition and culture that has been handed to us by our ancestors,” said Mr Malcolm Short, Chairman of the RLLT.

“Rotorua’s future depends on our land and water. The wealth and wellbeing of the district and its people will continue to depend heavily on making the most of farming, forestry and tourism to generate jobs and income”.

Maori culture believes in Kaitiakitanga (traditional way of environmental management) and Mauri (life force) of nature. Hence, human societies can not be separate from nature.

“That is one of the reasons why we have set up the Vallance research project. Biological farming systems which do not depend on artificial saturation of the farm by chemical fertilisers are expected to provide a more nature-friendly manner of agriculture,” Mr Short added.
Te Arawa FoMA and RLLT have formed an affiliation to take advantage of the benefits in joining together to share resources, ideas and development initiatives. Both entities retain their autonomy but where possible share and/or pool their resources to reach common outcomes.

Rooting Plants From Cuttings | ROSE GARDEN SECRETS

This article features the Aquamog CCX in action. The aquatic rig is ideal for creating channels or removing nuisance cattail growth from ponds. This is by far the fastest and most efficient Aquamog when it comes to just emergent vegetation and cattail removal. Where other Aquamogs need to separate attachments to do the same work, the Aquamog ccx just digs right in to create new open water.

The Aquamog CCX with its 2 separate cutter blades in the front of the barge can remove cattails to a depth of three feet. The blades move the machine as well as do the root removal job. Removingthe roots helps to prevent and limit re-growth in the area.

When the roots are removed they float on top of the water and are than easily collected and removed from the water body using an aquatic weed harvester. The harvester transports the plant material to the shore for final placement and/or off site disposal.

Cattails are a good plant that have many functions in lakes. They provide filtering of heavy metals from wetlands, as well as provide habitat and shelter for birds and other wildlife.

However, if not properly controlled they can quickly turn into a large aquatic weed problems that can be very hard and expensive to handle. That is why the Aquamog CCX was created.

The Aquamog equipment line was invented in the early 1980s by Aquatics Unlimited (AU). The McNabb family founded AU in the 1970. Both Tom and Dave McNabb created the Aquamog brand and line of equipment throughout the 1980s and 1990s while with AU. Tom continued the Aquamog line into the new century with the addition of the MarshMog. Tom’s new company Clean Lakes, Inc. (www.cleanlake.com) located in Martinez, California and Dave’s company DK Environmental (www.dkenvironmental.com) in Lafayette, California have been working together on the Aquamog CCX project for about 10 years and in February 2009 the Aquamog CCX-238 was introduced into the Aquamog family.

Biological and integrated control of water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, proceedings of the Second Meeting of the Global Working Group for the Biological and Integrated Control of Water Hyacinth, Beijing, China, 9-12 October 2000

Decker lake clean lakes grant, project summary reports, 1998-1999

A Commitment to Watershed Protection, A Review to the Clean Lakes Program

Resource Significance: A New Perspective for Environmental Project Planning

Stormwater, the journal for surface water quality professionals