https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350443531/thriving-southland-hires-new-catchment-coordinator

Thriving Southland hires new catchment coordinator

Kiah Radcliffe

October 14, 2024

New catchment coordinator Ginny Kennedy has joined Thriving Southland in a role that will see her support the Waiau and Upper Oreti catchment groups.Thriving Southland / Supplied

A recent funding boost to Thriving Southland has allowed the group to hire a new catchment coordinator to help support the growing number of catchment groups in the region.

Since 2020 Thriving Southland have helped grow Southland’s catchment groups from 18 to 37.

These groups include over 2000 farmers and community members and cover 95% of the Southland area.
Due to this major growth, the existing catchment coordinators were run off their feet supporting groups, lead catchment coordinator Rachel Halder said.

When they saw the funding from Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust’s Wai Connection, Halder said they asked if they could be a part of that.

"That’s just enabled us to get a new coordinator. That has meant that, you know, we can now kind of reduce the workload that our existing coordinators have, so that our groups have more time and capacity from us."

Part of the funding Wai Connection allocated to Thriving Southland would see the new coordinator Ginny Kennedy’s catchment groups have access to eDNA testing networks and whitebait connections training for their waterways.

Wai Connection aims to empower community catchment groups through providing the tools and knowledge to help identify issues in their local catchment area, as well as by connecting people with their waterways.

Halder said it was "really cool" that Thriving Southland had Kennedy to come in "all fresh and motivated" to support the Waiau and Upper Oreti catchment groups.

Kennedy said she was excited about the opportunity.

"I knew that this was an area that I would like to come back into," she said.

Originally from the Canterbury High Country, Kennedy had been farming and working in the farm environment field since she studied at Lincoln University and recently left a job in consultancy to join Thriving Southland.

Based in the Te Anau area with her husband and two children, she comes from Wakatipu where they used to manage a sheep and beef farm.

Kennedy said she thrives on supporting farmers and catchment groups to tackle environmental challenges and achieve sustainable outcomes, and her job was to support the Waiau and Upper Oreti catchment groups when they wanted to address a problem in their catchment.

"We’re there to support them along the way, however that might look."

She added that the opportunities the catchment groups received from the Wai Connection was a "great way" for communities to get a snapshot of what’s living in their waterways.

"I think so many of us don’t really know what lurks beneath, in our waterways ... and it’s not until you get the opportunity to find out what’s going on do you really become interested."

Mountains to Sea Freshwater Lead Kim Jones said they're delighted to have Kennedy as part of the extended delivery team and it was "awesome" to have Thriving Southland on board for the Wai Connection project.

"Their relationships with local catchment groups will ensure communities down south are further empowered to protect and restore their local waterways."