Having lived in the utterly beautiful Bay all my life, I was relieved to
see respected journalist Marty Sharpe (Beast should never have been let out
of paddock, September 1) vindicate my intuitive suspicions in regard to the Ruataniwha
Dam.
Really you can justify water-intensive cultivation such as dairy only in the
rainshadow of the Ruahines. The Takapau Plains have been abused, their signature pine
and poplar plantations cut down to accommodate enormous irrigators, laneways cut
ruthlessly through pasture with cows mooching disconsolately to and from
their unsightly sheds, leaving behind a trail of muck.
The saddest aspect of all this dollar-driven frenzy is the awful waste of
money on lawyers, on ‘Eastlight ringbinders’ and a Board of Inquiry, money which
could have been spent subsidising sheep and beef cattle farmers’ own water preservation and
storage, and on research and promotion of crops which like lots of sun and not
much rain.
Hawke’s Bay’s future lies with tourism at least as much as farming. We owe
it to the land and our children to restore its beauty, and to the rivers their
natural flow.
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