Environment Canterbury has welcomed the announcement that a waterway in the Selwyn-Waihora zone has won the Morgan Foundation award for the most improved river in Canterbury.  More information about the awards can be found here.

Kaituna River took the award for Canterbury, determined by monitored trend decline in dissolved inorganic nitrogen.

The Kaituna River is featured in WET’s 2015 State of the Lake report, with information about a water quality and cultural monitoring programme, and a trial underway on floating nesting platforms for grebes.

Kaituna River is a Banks Peninsula hill-fed river located in the Kaituna Valley, just off the Akaroa Highway, State Highway 75. It feeds into Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere and is 4000 hectares in size and 15 kilometres long.

The area is very important to Ngai Tahu, particularly for the Koukourarata hapu of Banks Peninsula who used the Kaituna Valley as their traditional pathway to Te Waihora to gather mahinga kai. The recent Living Lake Symposium field trip visited Kaituna and we heard from Koukourarata runanga members.

ECan reports that the decline in dissolved inorganic nitrogen is a positive sign for the river, particularly as much of the improvement is through lower ammonia concentrations. Ammonia is highly toxic to aquatic life and is associated with fresh faecal contamination. Excluding stock from the river margins, although difficult in hill country, creates positive benefits.