When our ten year plan was achieved we wallowed around for a while not really knowing what we wanted to focus on for the next ten years. Finally we sat down for a decent planning session and decided the goal that we were passionate about was to increase the diversity in our environment. We divided this up into birds, fish and other creatures (including soil organisms) and the plant life that supports everything.
One of our challenges is affordable measurement of our starting point. We listen to Graeme Sait’s podcasts and he recommended getting our own soil microbe measurement kit – so step one has arrived in the mail – our MicroBiometer.

Luckily for us the Horizons Regional Council was doing some checking out of streams for fish access, and they agreed to do a survey for us. The results were a bit of a surprise – especially the shrimp, and a large pregnant Inanga. We did know that we had lots of longfin eels.
Next steps are more planting in the wetland we are restoring, oversowing our pasture with a wild mix of herbs and a species count of the plant and bird life.




