U.S. conservators to visit next week

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33446, 30 January 1974, Page 16

U.S. conservators to visit next week

Soil and water conservation work in North Canterbury will be studied by 25 members of the United States National Association of Conservation Districts on February 5 and 6.

The Americans, who are connected with the equivalent of New Zealand catchment boards, will arrive from a tour of Australia and go on to the North Island.

On February 5, the visitors will be looked after by the soil conservation division of the Ministry of Works. Travelling by bus, they will travel along the length of the Summit Road from Evans Pass to Gebbies Pass, taking advantage of the panoramic

views of the plains, Lyttelton and Lake Ellesmere.

They will see the benched terraces constructed by the Ministry to control erosion on the route of the Tunnel Road and in the fruit-growing valleys near Heathcote. After a luncheon at Lincoln College, and a brief look at some of its activities, the party will go to Kainga, where the national hydrological laboratory will be inspected, and an explanation given of the control work on the Waimakariri River.

On February 6, the Catchment Board’s chief soil conservator (Mr R. D. Dick) will take the visitors over Porter’s Pass, explaining on the way the board’s shelter-belt treeplanting scheme. In the high country, the party will be told of the land retirement policy, carried out by the board, in association with run holders and the Lands and Survey Department, by which erosion is being arrested and water retained and controlled by the management of vegetation. They will also see land taken over by the New Zealand Forest Service for soil conservation by afforestation.