Homewood Sustainability Action Group
Established in 2022, the Homewood Sustainability Action Group unites the local community to protect and enhance their east coast catchment. Their focus is on healthy waterways, thriving biodiversity, effective pest control, and inspiring future generations to care for the land and water.
Location
The Homewood catchment covers 8,532 hectares on the east coast of the Wairarapa. The landscape rises from steep western hills, reaching up to 560 metres, and drops down through incised terraces to coastal flats, with around 10 kilometres of coastline. Active tectonic uplift along the coast has created distinctive marine terraces, and over 84% of the catchment sits on erodible or highly erodible soils.
Unlike most catchments formed around a single river, Homewood has five streams originating in the western hills and flowing east to the coast. Together, these streams and their tributaries stretch 232 kilometres and are steep and fast-flowing due to the significant elevation drop from headwaters to sea.
Land use is predominantly extensive sheep and beef farming, with an increasing area being converted to plantation forestry.
Purpose
The purpose of the Homewood Sustainability Action Group is to develop a flourishing and united catchment community focussed around six key areas:
Maintaining healthy waterways
Enhancing biodiversity
Cultivating a strong catchment identity
Fostering a connected community
Engaging the next generation
Coordinate strategic pest animal control
Projects
Water quality monitoring
The Homewood catchment group monitored five sites to gain an understanding of the baseline position of the water quality in the catchment.
These sites were sampled four times between August 2022 and May 2023, in different flow conditions. No summer samples were collected.
The group want to better understand these results so they can take actions to improve water quality. From here the group can make a plan about monitoring frequency.
Action planning
The group are working with Greater Wellington and Wairarapa Catchment Collective to develop a action plan.
This will link the group's vision and outcomes to tangible projects and actions.
This action plan can be re-evaluated each year to celebrate the group's successes and evaluate emerging projects in the community.
Pest control
The Homewood Sustainability Action Group would like to improve the biodiversity and stock health in and around part of the Homewood Catchment area.
The group had an extensive plan created for intensive pest animal control within the Homewood Catchment.
The group are working under the Wairarapa Catchment Collective pest project to scale the plan to make it manageable while still achieving community aspirations.
Catchment Group Coordinator
GEORGE TATHAM
info@wairarapacc.nz