Bridge Pool Update:
TRM have been contacted by so many anglers worried whether their favourite Bridge Pool is still “fishable”.
As we watched on an outstanding Thursday afternoon, the lower angler in the distance hooked and landed a fiesty fresh run Rainbow trout. OK?
Thank you to other TRM inmates who have thoroughly tested the Bridge and “Lower” Bridge Pools over the last few days to confirm they are both still holding fresh run trout despite the “flood prevention” (?) works straightening and increased speed of the flow.
Again are “before” (on right) and “after” (above) images of the Bridge Pool, the most popular Tongariro River pool in NZ, to show how they have redirected the flow away from the TRB towards the centre.
The NZ Herald feature article below – re: Regional Councils pursue trivia while environment goes backwards – is so relevant as it touches on the same sad issues anglers have in Turangi with Waikato Regional Council. i.e. They – WRC – claim they are justified in ripping up the most popular trout fishing pool on the Tongariro as they have hydro engineers science to support their quarrying. They claim they have consulted blah, blah, etc.
But anglers have asked us to just stop for a moment and consider where else in the world have you ever seen a river run in a direct straight line?. The fluctuating pressures of water flow results in natural curves and meandering patterns. No doubt a few floods will soon revise the contours in the Bridge Pool too.
Before the WRC engineers in Hamilton make such decisions they need to consider the obvious detrimental affects on a much BIGGER industry – called tourism – that is spelt $$$ – the biggest industry in NZ. If they had considered that they would stay away. No where else in the world would Council or Fishery Management allow bulldozers and diggers to play sand pit games to straighten the flow in the best trout fishing pool in the world!
Imagine if bulldozers and diggers arrived in the Madison or Bighorn rivers and commenced to trash it? It would never happen as there would be a national outcry. Quite right too. Yet WRC just expect Tongariro anglers to comply with their eco terrorist vandals flow experiments. Anglers report they have had enough!
We hope TRM is allowed to repeat articles from the Granny Herald. If not, SWMBO apologises. Carefully digest the Rachel Stewart’s NZ Herald article – without choking:
Why the ‘h’ do they bother?
Regional Councils pursue trivia while environment goes backwards.
(TRM library images on right, of anglers on the W(h?)anganui River, qualify this as a fishing report. But can you pick the common theme in all the photos? That is very important! Answer below.)
To be (a bit) fair, of those most are more inclined towards governance roles within regional councils. What better place to show off your lack of smarts?
I’ve a long history of defining regional councils as nothing more than firm enemies of the environment. Yet, these are the very people tasked with looking after our environmental resources.
There’s a reason why they removed the word “environment” from their names.
It was basically a lie.
Accordingly, I’d like to see regional councils either completely revamped and/or razed to the ground.
If you think that’s extreme, it stems from years of witnessing waterways degrading on their watch. And, because they’re politically top-heavy with dairy interests, they’ve almost perfected the art of pretending they’re doing something meaningful about water quality when the opposite is generally true.
So, when their wee minds get distracted from their default position of NOT working on the most important issue facing this country’s economic and environmental stability – water – I get nervous. It’s like watching Trump, but without the lucidity.
Heard of Orizons? Oh, I’m sorry. I left out the “H”. Horizons is the trading name of the Manawatu-Whanganui Regional Council – except currently ‘Whanganui’ is spelled without the “h”. Confused? Let me break it down.
Despite the Whanganui River’s name being legally changed in 1991, and the district which carries its name being legally changed in 2015, Horizons would have us believe that they need to “consult” with the ratepayers over correcting both a grammatical and a spelling error. Because, when the racist stew is all boiled down, that’s what it is. A grammatical and spelling error.
It’s really quite something that the “h” in Whanganui is still up for debate by a regional council whose boundaries are defined by two river catchments.
Further to that, Horizons has already voted to ask the New Zealand Geographic Board to go through the required process of providing a recommendation to the Government to approve the name change.
So, you’ve got to ask. Why have they decided to “consult” the people, many of whom are scattered hundreds of miles away from the Whanganui River and district, and have no understanding of, or interest, in the area anyway?
The “consultation” is happening via their Long-Term Plan, and they’ve called for submissions. These submissions will generate the same stock-standard responses the whole ‘h’ issue engendered before. It’s old news. The racists come out in force arguing spurious colonial ethno-centric history, while the rational voices will likely not even play the game. Why bother?
The Horizons’ chairman has been doing the media rounds saying that the issue is “divisive” and that the council “doesn’t want to open up old wounds”. He even claims that he’s received “a number of threatening letters” about the issue. If that’s thrown him, maybe he should try being a female opinion writer on for size?
Here’s the thing. The reason I keep putting the word “consult” in quote marks is because they absolutely did not need to do it. Also, we all know that councils have the right to ignore said “consultation” and do whatever they want anyway. And often do.
So, why are they doing it?
I think it’s a mish mash of misguided motives. Maybe it was to appease some racists around the council table. Perhaps it was a way to treat the Whanganui part of their territory as a poor second cousin, as many feel they do. Possibly, they perceive the spectre of public discord as a bit of fun.
A few weeks ago, this dysfunction reared its ugly head when they decided to write to the conservation and environment ministers asking for their views about trout and salmon protection.
Why? Because one of the tactics used to deflect attention away from dairy farming’s impact on water quality is to attempt to blame introduced fish species for the problem. They’ve done it before, and they despise Fish & Game for their years of effective work in highlighting dirty dairying and the negatives of irrigation schemes. Remember the One Plan?
The One Plan is the document the council uses to direct how natural resources are managed in the region. Fish & Game were successfully involved in the 2017 Environment Court judgment that found Horizons was not correctly implementing their own One Plan, or doing enough to keep streams and rivers clean, and incorrectly issuing consents for dairy farming.
Given such petty-mindedness, it’s no wonder Horizons want to relitigate the ‘h’ in Whanganui. It’s an “up you” to the legal name, and an attempt to hurt local iwi.
How thick – with an “h” – do they have to be?
(Did you pick the common denominator in the images? They are all overseas tourists fishing the W(h?)anganui River. But forget anglers… Obviously they hardly matter to Regional Councils. The point is that environmental damage caused by Regional councils detrimentally affects tourism – NZ’s BIGGEST $$$ industry… OK?)