Taupō Lakes and Waterways

02/10/2026

What price to biodiversity of local body reform? A question currently exercising retired veterinarian Stu Hutchings.

Hutchings has worked for OSPRI (Operational Solutions for Primary Industries) for more than a decade, the kiwifruit industry in biosecurity and the Ministry for Primary Industries, spending around two years as MPI’s chief biosecurity officer. This professional involvement has now been replaced by volunteer work for Huka Trapping (the Bike Taupō affiliate that conducts pest control on the district’s bike trials.)
Biosecurity is the precursor to biodiversity, he says. Reduce pest management (whether plant or animal) and biodiversity will diminish. Regional councils are the regulator, protecting the environment at catchment level.

“They take that landscape scale of management and look at all of the pests… they have to prioritise their funding depending on available funding, but they do take that wider approach and they're directly responsible for protection of waterways and the quality of our water and flora and fauna… if all of those regional councils disappear, will there be a focus on that regulatory approach to environment protection?”

For the full story:

You can return to our homepage by clicking here, or you can try searching for the content you are seeking by clicking here.

29/09/2026

💧 Water of Life Day is back!

Schools are invited to sign up for a fun, interactive day at the Tongariro National Trout Centre, connecting students with freshwater and the natural ecosystems around it.

Students will rotate through a range of hands-on workshops and activities, including freshwater biosecurity and macroinvertebrates, all within the beautiful setting of the Tongariro National Trout Centre.

📅 Thursday 22 October
⏰ 10am–2pm
📍 Tongariro Trout Centre, Tūrangi

Water of Life Day is led by Enviroschools Waikato, with support from the Taupō Environmental Education Collaborative, including the Tongariro National Trout Centre and Kids Greening Taupō. For more information contact: [email protected]

27/09/2026

Two opportunities to support the good mahi at Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board!

27/09/2026

Waterways are an important part of our community!

23/09/2026

MEDIA RELEASE
Thursday, 24 September 2026

The Waikato River Authority says Parliament's decision to park the core of Plan Change 1 (PC1) until 2033 sets a troubling precedent for Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato, and stalls momentum on restoring rivers that are already deteriorating.

The legislation, passed under urgency on Tuesday night, means farmers will not be required to prepare, implement and maintain a PC1 Farm Environment Plan before 2033.

Those plans are how farms would show they are reducing nutrient and sediment run-off into waterways and managing the areas most likely to pollute them.

The legislation comes just over three months after the Environment Court confirmed PC1 as the essential first step towards Te Ture Whaimana, the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato and Waipā Rivers established through Treaty settlement legislation.

WRA Co-Chair Danny Loughlin said the decision raised serious questions about the strength of the protections in the Waikato River settlement.

"Te Ture Whaimana was given special status in law so that the health and wellbeing of the river would come first. It is meant to prevail over national policy. What concerns us most is the precedent this sets. If Parliament can step around the Vision and Strategy by legislating a pause whenever a process becomes inconvenient, then the protection river iwi negotiated in good faith is far weaker than anyone understood it to be."

Mr Loughlin said the Authority would hold the Government to its assurance that PC1's work would shape what comes next.

"The law now says decision-makers must have particular regard to PC1 when Waikato's first natural environment plan is developed. We'll hold them to that. But particular regard in a plan that is still years away is no substitute for action on the ground now.”

WRA Co-Chair Stu Kneebone said the pause had halted momentum at the point it was most needed.

"The Environment Court called PC1 the essential first step towards Te Ture Whaimana. That first step has now been paused, and momentum is the hardest thing to rebuild. The river is already deteriorating, and it won't wait for a new planning system. Every year we push this out adds another year to an 80-year journey."

The Authority acknowledged that PC1's underlying rules remain in force, including controls on nitrogen fertiliser, cultivation, intensive winter grazing and land-use change.

It will continue to work with Waikato Regional Council, central government, river iwi, the primary sector and catchment communities to keep restoration work moving during the deferral period.

To view full Media release, head to the link below:
https://waikatoriver.org.nz/pc1-pause-sets-troubling-precedent/

22/09/2026

Former Taupō-Rotorua constituency representative on the Waikato Regional Council (WRC). Laurie Burdett has several concerns about the process underway for local body reorganisation and how any reconfigured bodies might deal with current regional council responsibilities.

These include:
• Maintaining a catchment-based approach for environmental management
• Ensuring an overseeing body has the power to uphold resource consent conditions, including for those issued to other local authorities (or possibly itself)
• Ensuring regional bodies are large enough to spread the ratepayer contribution for projects of regional significance
• The suggestion that mayoral forums could replace regional councillors elected per constituency

She fears a significant dilution or removal of environmental controls could see her one day looking out on “the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Waikato” – recalling Rudyard Kipling’s line in his Just So Stories about ‘the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo’.

For the full story, check out our website post.

Former Taupō-Rotorua constituency representative on the Waikato Regional Council (WRC). Laurie Burdett has several concerns about the process underway for local body reorganisation and how any reconfigured bodies might deal with current regional council responsibilities.

17/09/2026

For both environmental and budgetary reasons, TDC decided to cancel NYE fireworks over the lake.

The 2025 display cost about $53,000, including $40,000 for fireworks.

08/09/2026

The structures that emerge from local body reorganisation are one thing, but the legislation they will operate under is crucial in setting the standards they will use to protect the environment, and under which individuals and advocacy groups will be able to submit on or challenge consents.

Resource Management Act (1991) reform through the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill is one concern for groups like Forest and Bird but they, along with the Waikato River Authority and Tainui iwi are also concerned about challenges to environmental protections established through recent changes to Regional Plans….

Read more here.

The structures that emerge from local body reorganisation are one thing, but the legislation they will operate under is crucial in setting the standards they will use to protect the environment, and under which individuals and advocacy groups will be able to submit on or challenge consents. Resourc

03/09/2026

Taupō District Council has opted out of inclusion in any Head Start local body reorganisation proposal, but of more importance to the health of the environment say a number of experienced local body politicians, are what is happening with reform to the RMA and central government challenges to regional council moves to protect lakes and waterways.

If the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill don’t provide sufficient protection for the environment and work to prevent climate damage, environmental advocates are back to being the "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff", says Forest and Bird Waikato Regional Conservation Manager Elvisa Van der Leden...

Read more here.

Taupō District Council has opted out of inclusion in any Head Start local body reorganisation proposal, but of more importance to the health of the environment say a number of experienced local body politicians, are what is happening with reform to the RMA and central government challenges to regio...

27/08/2026