Waipoua River 20130219.pdf - Northland Regional Council

Northland Regional Council identified the Waipoua River as one of several prioritycatchments for establishing catchment specific freshwater objectives and freshwater qualityand quantity limits.1.3 Document structureThis document is structured as follows:Section 2 provides an overview of the river and its catchment, including informationabout its related uses and values. It also outlines the current policy framework formanaging activities that can have an impact on the river and its catchment.Section 3 describes the quality and quantity of water in the river, the river ecosystemand freshwater biodiversity, and identifies information gaps.Section 4 identifies known and likely pressures on the River and its catchment. Thissection also identifies information gaps.Generally speaking, this document has been prepared for a wide audience. Wheneverpossible, technical details and background information has been minimised but some is stillrequired.2 The Waipoua River and catchment2.1 OverviewLike many of Northland’s rivers, Waipoua River is relatively short. However, unlike most ofNorthlands rivers (which usually discharge to harbours) Waipoua flows into open sea on theWest Coast. The headwaters of the Waipoua River are in the Parataiko Range andMataraua Plateau, at about 650 metres above sea level (masl), near Tutamoe. From here itflows west, under SH12 (about 100 masl), past Waipoua Forest Visitor Centre and WaipouaSettlement, before discharging to the West Coast, approximately 10 kilometres north ofManganui Bluff.The Waipoua River is the boundary between the Kaipara and Far North District Councils.The entire catchment is within the rohe of Te Roroa and Waipoua Forest has been identifiedas the heart of their Rohe (Te Roroa Manawhenua Trust 2009).The River is named after the Poua, a large pipi that tastes like a toheroa (Harris undated).The total catchment area of the Waipoua River is approximately 11,160 Ha. Part of theWaipoua River is classified as an ‘Outstanding river’ in the Regional Water and Soil Plan(RWSP) (Figure 1). The ‘Outstanding river’ part of the catchment basically includes all of thecatchment upstream of SH12 and Waikohatu Stream. Approximately 70% (7,790 ha) of thewhole catchment is within the area identified as an ‘Outstanding river’. The majority of thisarea is within the Waipoua Forest (ie, has indigenous forest land cover), except for somesmall areas of pasture in the headwaters.In Waipoua Forest, the average air temperature is 14.2°C with average monthlytemperatures ranging from 10.2°C in July to 18.2°C in December (DOC 2011). The averageannual rainfall at the Waipoua Forest Visitor Centre is 1605 mm, with the wettest monthsbeing June and July and the driest month January (Table 1). Higher areas in the east (on the7