OCC Catchment Group day & Thomson’s Creek site visit
Location: Omakau
Catchment Groups represented: 11
The first of the Catchment Group days was held on November 11, by OCC. OCC are keen to bring groups to connect with each other in a setting where people can share ideas, stories – good & bad and take time out to learn a bit more about what is happening for other groups.
This day was held for anyone from a catchment group to come along, and with some focused discussion points, learn more from each other about what is happening in other catchments, what is being focused on, how everything from projects to community engagement is carried out.
Connection and inspiration were key takeaways for the day.
The time to chat and connect is essential for this kind of event, so the site visit in the afternoon extended that opportunity for good chat. The site visit was led by the Thompson’s Creek group who walked us 10 minutes down the Rail Trail to view their propsed wetland project. The group have received funding from MfE as part of the Manuherekia exemplar catchment programme. The sharing of information at the site with other catchment groups was as much about Thomson’s group conveying their ideas as it was other group’s members putting across thoughts they had, creating an ideal space to learn and build on ideas.
OCC introduced their funding which is available to catchment and watercare groups in Otago.
Otago Regional Council gave an overview of the land and water regional plan consultation process.
OCC brought small groups together for focused discussion which were based around communications and engagement for groups. The shared knowledge within the room was awesome to witness and OCC will be taking the information from these discussions and share it back as a resource that should help groups with any queries regarding the topics discussed.
Thumbnail image credit: Neil Glover