Alexa Forbes: Water consultation, e-buses and biodiversity

News and thoughts from Otago Regional Councillor Alexa Forbes

We are well into the new council year with many issues to face and deal with.

Despite internal wranglings, good stuff IS happening. 

Our science team is charging along working at the ground level with community groups while using state-of-the-art tech to fill data gaps and map extraordinary things. 

Super important right now is the ongoing consultation around the Land and Water Plan - Consultation for Dunstan is tonight, February 28. 

Hopefully everyone who wants to engage with this already knows about it. If not, tonight is the night for those in the Dunstan Rohe who want to hear about and discuss the Land and Water Plan. 

This session is mostly about what you value about the waterways. 

I'm frankly more interested in getting going on what we're doing to protect them, but I'm told that revisiting the 'value' question is a vital step. 

So, we likely need to hear your ideas and views expressed as what you value about the waterways. 

You'll find the zoom room link, plus links and times for the other rohe at this link. (You'll need to scroll down a wee bit.)

EBus trial October 2021

The bus is made in New Zealand, is really comfortable and performed as well as it should have apart from a wee whoopsie breakdown on day two that was quickly resolved.

eDNA, uncommon landscapes, cryptic species

Several Land Science and Biodiversity programmes are underway at ORC.

Among the big issues we face in restoring our environment is that there is no clear picture of the state of the environment. 

Long term plan investment into our science team is a major step in addressing that and will guide our approach for many years.

Find out more about what's going on and what it means for biodiversity in our region here. 

I thoroughly enjoyed both those reads, and highly recommend them. 

Also, the Listener from October 8 has an excellent roundup of our energy woes including a summary of why Lake Onslow won't solve them. Journalist George Driver asks the question: “Is a $4 billion hydro storage proposal in central Otago an outmoded ‘think big’ solution or the only sustainable answer to our dry-year electricity needs?" The story is behind a paywall, but if you pay for Granny Herald or the Listener you should be able to find it.

An excellent discussion on Morning Report was worth a listen - Dunedin Councillors Jim O'Malley and Jules Radich discussing the merits, or not, of the Waka Kotahi NZTA decision to maintain the one-way system. Dunedin City Council is challenging the decision. 

As always there's much more to discuss and much more I've been listening to and reading, but I need to get this out! And, yes, there's an equation in the background, all about the exponential curve which features so often these days. More on that another day. 

Mā te wā...