| 15 Kotare Station’s So e and Henry Gaddum with children Frankie and Guy. One of the fenced off blocks, with natives left to regenerate. RURAL PEOPLE » Kotare Station: Henry & So e Gaddum Native bush pilot key to biodiversity crisis Karen Phelps Kotare Station is part of a pilot that is seeking to identify the carbon bene ts of New Zealand’s native bush. Farming an hour inland from Gisborne at Matawai, Kotare Station is 767ha total/600ha effective with the non-farmable part of the unit largely in established natives and bush. Operated by Henry and So e Gaddum, Kotare Station is working with the team at Toha as a pilot farm to pave the way for Kiwi farmers to change the course of the biodiversity crisis. A one-of-a-kind global marketplace with climate and environmental impact at its heart, Toha’s vision is to make New Zealand the rst country to achieve economic prosperity by fully regenerating the environment. It has designed a way to reliably measure and prove regenerative outcomes allowing the true value of the actions that regenerate the planet to be recognised and traded in the market. The Gaddums have been working with Toha to build templates that will be used for other farmers once Toha is of cially launched later this year. Steve Sawyer from Ecoworks NZ has completed baseline measurements on around 150ha of the property, largely fenced off bush and gullies and freestanding natives, and will return at intervals to take more measurements to generate data for comparison. “We were concerned about the blanket planting of pine trees across the region,” says Henry. “We got introduced to Toha and wanted to show alternative or better solutions to what the ETS is currently pushing.” They believe biodiversity is the key and that New Zealand’s native bush could be a huge carbon sink. “We are measuring many things to do with biodiversity, for example seedling densities, tree cover, bird life etc. It’s about looking at the big picture. Using data collection, we are working towards proving out multiple points of value in native forests that will in-turn provide alternative revenue to land owners.” The sheep, beef and deer unit covers a mix of river terraces, easy rolling and medium hill and steep country. The Gaddums are the third generation to farm the land that was originally purchased by Henry’s grandparents in 1954. The sheep, beef and deer unit covers a mix of river terraces, easy rolling and medium hill and steep country. Henry grew up on the farm, studied for a Diploma of Agriculture and Farm management at Lincoln University then went shepherding around Gisborne before returning to the family farm in July 2020. So e taught at Gisborne Intermediate and now works on the farm as well as being a full time mum to the couple’s two children: Guy, 2 ½ and Frankie 9 months. The farm runs 1500 Romney ewes, 150 Angus cows and 200 Red velvet stags. The Gaddums are presently busy setting up pest control plans and planting a second layer canopy of 400 trees – rimu, totara, kahikatea among other natives – in one of the three-year-old retired blocks on the farm. Flaxes and shrubs formed the initial layer of planting. “We’re concerned about what environment our kids will grow up in. Current settings are steering our regions towards a blanket of monoculture exotics, susceptible to being wiped out by disease and a huge re risk as we head into warmer times. “We want people to know that this is not the way forward and there is great work being done on alternative solutions. “We need to press pause on mass plantings of exotics and focus on bringing value to what New Zealand already has and the work being done on the land around biodiversity. We should be working towards a more integrated and long term picture of land use.” GISBORNE | 743 Gladstone Rd | 06 867 9405 | gisborne@evs.co.nz WAIROA | 46 Freyberg St | 06 838 6099 | wairoa@evs.co.nz www.evs.co.nz Proud to be supporting Kotare Station L to R: Ross Mitchell, Daryl Fergus, Rob Fergus, Tim Petro, Luke Bates, Deano Brenssell. www.fergusrural.co.nz • admin@fergusrural.co.nz Gisborne: Wairoa: Rob Fergus 027 4496007 Deano Brenssell 027 8638923 Luke Bates 027 4211653 Daryl Fergus 027 2092787 Ross Mitchell 027 4048965 Environmental Solutions Consultant: Tim Petro 027 3390400 Livestock and Agribusiness consultants. AGRIBUSINESS
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