Welcome to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council's website pages on land and soil in Hawke's Bay.
The Council plays a key role in promoting sustainable land management in the region.
In this section you will find information about the Land Management team, drainage, irrigation and wetlands. You can also find out about the Council's Regional Land Care Scheme which provides grants for land management projects.
Please contact the Land Management team if you have specific information enquiries.
On this page | 
|
Soil is essential for the extensive cropping and farming enterprises that are the core of the Hawke’s Bay economy. Our land is also home to many native plants and animals so areas of natural bush require careful conservation to ensure their survival. The flat plains areas have been formed by thousands of years of erosion of mountains and hills, then floods have washed the soil down to form the plains. Repeated flooding means that soil is a renewable resource, but it takes a long time to get it back once its lost.
Much of the hill country in Hawke’s Bay has shallow, highly erosive soils. The Regional Council is working with farmers and landowners to protect this land, through erosion control planting and careful management of the use of the land.
Land resources are monitored and reported in the State of the Environment Report.
The Hawke’s Bay region covers approx 1.42 million hectares of land. Erosion is a significant concern for rural landowners; the ongoing legacy of a history of bush clearance and intensive pastoral farming has made for a landscape with a low amount of tree or bush cover, and therefore reduced protection from wind and rain. Problems include
- Erosion, by wind and rain
- Cultivation and maintaining fertility on highly productive soils
- Riparian management of water quality
- Shelter against wind
- Loss of habitat for native plants and animals.
- Cooperation between farmers, other landowners and the Regional Council
- Plant trees on hillsides and near streams
- Retire land from unsuitable uses or changing land uses
- Carefully manage stock
- Manage cultivation, including the use of no-tillage methods
- List and contain contaminated sites.
- Legal covenants on remaining bush areas
- Planting of native plants to create new bush areas or regenerate remnants
- Fencing to keep stock out
- Controlling plant and animal pests.
Please contact us should you require further information.