Kaikōura Zone Delivery Manager Kevin Heays provides insight into what is happening on the ground.

Kaikōura Zone Delivery Manager Kevin Heays

Kev’s corner

We called and the community answered!

In late June we hosted the first meeting for the refreshed Love the Lyell Governance Group – a group of enthusiastic community members who are dedicated to bringing our freshwater creeks and streams back to their former health.

Love the Lyell has always been about our community getting stuck in and pulling their sleeves up for the health of Lyell Creek/Waikōau. We acknowledge that the rest of the waterways in Kaikōura also need care and attention, so have built upon the previous Lyell Creek/Waikōau goals to include the entire Kaikōura Flats catchment with a focus on mentoring, promoting or financially managing:

• the protection and restoration of the creek and surrounding environment
• the reduction of contaminants going into the catchment
• enhancing and protecting natural waterways
• our annual community planting and clean-up days
• our community’s connection to the waterways
• applications for funding to support initiatives.

Although it seems like a big task, I have faith that the great group of people around the table have the drive and expertise to pull this off. Their initial ideas on the long-term vision for our waterways will blow us away and I cannot wait to see some of those ideas start to take shape.

They will work closely with the Zone Delivery team at our Kaikōura office and the Kaikōura Water Zone Committee, to be role models for how to treat our freshwater waterways.

I look forward to seeing what can be achieved and hope to one day be able to say that our goal to remove the ‘no swimming’ sign at Lyell Creek/Waikōau has been fulfilled.

Kev.