Natives killed by South Waikato District Council spraying

Wednesday, 21 March 2018

Roger Freeman once found walking along Tokoroa's Matarawa stream relaxing.

Now even the thought of the walk gets him uptight as he pictures natives plants 'devastated by poison'.

For years Freeman spent hours voluntarily clearing blackberry and self-seeded flowering cherry trees from the South Waikato District Council owned land, land which the council has invested thousands in by planting natives.

But Freeman's hard work to see the native's flourish has been for nothing. He claims the council neglects the area and then sprays and kills the native plants trying to remedy it.

'It seems to be a council policy not to maintain the reserve,' he said.

'Now and again they will come in and make a bit of an effort and plant it up with natives but then abandon them.

'They get overgrown [with grass and weeds] so they spray and start over again. It is a continued cycle which has been going on for a decade,' he said.

Freeman said he has approached the council for an explanation only to be further disheartened.

'A year ago I got so p***ed off I got in touch with Mayor Jenny Shattock and she was astounded by how it hadn't been maintained and that it was totally overgrown.

'She went back to the council but I went down there again recently and you wouldn't believe it, the grass was chest high, no maintenance had been done.'

'They have since been down and slashed and sprayed but you can still see how high the weeds got and the native plants have been devastated by poison from one end of the reserve to the other.'

He said contractors needed to be held to account.

South Waikato District Council communications manager Kerry Fabrie said if natives are killed by contractors they replace them at their own cost.

However, she said it was not always easy to determine how they die.

'Parks and Reserves staff carry out on-site audits every month and note any issues including non-compliance to the contract specifications,' she said.

'These are passed on to the contractor to rectify. If it is determined that native plantings have been lost due to negligence by the contractor they are required to replace these at their cost.

'It is not always easy to determine that re-vegetation plantings have died because of being over sprayed with a herbicide. We certainly expect the contractor to monitor his or her staff's practices where it has been determined that over-spraying has occurred to ensure it does not happen again.'

She said the council replaces all plants that have died each year and maintenance work is carried out four times a year.

'Native species were last planted in the esplanade reserves alongside the Matarawa stream in 2016. Four hundred and seventy plants were planted at cost ranging on average at $6 per plant, so approximately $3000,' she said.

She said the council was looking into making several contract changes to improve service delivery.