Reserve management plans are required under the Reserves Act to guide the use, management, and protection of reserve land. They should provide a long-term vision for a reserve, as well as direction on actions that will be taken in the next 10 years.

The plan acts as a reference point and includes the reserve classification and legal status, the area it covers, an overview of the values and the challenges and opportunities ahead.

The draft Reserve Management Plan differs from the current Reserve Management Plan (2009) as it:

• extends the plans scope to include recently acquired land to the south (Lot 6 DP 526717) and any future land acquired to protect and restore Lake Ngā Roto
• sets a clear vision prioritising the restoration and protection of the life sustaining capacity of Lake Ngā Roto’s water and wetlands
• outlines management principles to guide decisions
• proposes reclassifying the recreation reserve land parcels to scenic reserve and gazetting and classifying Lot 6 DP 526717 and any future land acquired as scenic reserves under the Act
• builds on the explanation of the significance of Lake Ngā Roto to mana whenua and includes a range of specific policies to recognise and provide for their connections. Integrates mātauranga Māori and tikanga into the governance and management of Lake Ngā Roto, including acknowledging the area’s wāhi tapu status and undertaking the necessary steps to restore the traditional name ‘Wairoto’
• incorporates new initiatives such as the Taieo te Taiao and the proposed Te Awamutu to Pirongia and Ōhaupō cycleway
• outlines a broader range of actions to protect and restore the lake health
• proposes a concept plan be developed for the main arrival zone to direct future developments in this area
• proposes to make the reserve ‘rubbish free’
• outlines the responsibilities lessees and game bird hunters must meet to be able to continue using the lake
• provides for limited commercial activities to assist in the public use and enjoyment without negatively impacting on authorised activities and the general character and amenity of Lake Ngā Roto
• provides greater clarity about the location and number of vehicles for freedom camping at Lake Ngā Roto for a maximum of two nights
• prohibits smoking and vaping (in accordance with Council’s Smokefree and Vapefree Policy 2021), drone use (other than for approved purposes) and freedom camping adjoining the public boat ramps
• identifies management zones with explanations of the desired visitor experience and level of development in each zone
• includes a new monitoring and reporting section (including current targets and baselines for key freshwater attributes)
• identifies roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders involved in achieving the vision for Lake Ngā Roto
• increases the range of catchment maps to show historic and current land use, stream sizes and key risk areas in terms of nutrient, contaminant and sediment inflows.

As with the current Reserve Management Plan 2009, the draft plan continues to:

• share information about the wide range of values associated with Lake Ngā Roto
• record and raise awareness of the causes, effects and solutions to the extremely poor lake health and encourage ongoing monitoring and investigations into the impacts of management actions
• identify actions to significantly enhance land-based indigenous biodiversity
• promote the extension of buffer zones around the lake and the wetland area in the southern catchment through acquisitions and encouraging adjoining landowners to retire, fence, and re-naturalise adjoining low-lying areas
• prohibit drainage activity (including the dredging and vegetation removal of historic drains) within the land administered by Council, which may adversely affect lake levels, lake water quality or ground water levels unless there is strong evidence that a different approach will improve lake health
• enable the current range of recreation activities and continue the prohibition on the use of power boats other than those used in association with managing yachting, rowing and waka paddling events; erecting and managing hunting stands prior to and during the hunting season, and management and safety purposes
• prohibit the taking of indigenous fauna for any commercial purposes.

• Mana whenua have had the opportunity to better express their cultural values and aspirations for the lake and wider catchment
• Deterioration of the lake’s water quality and ecological conditions despite a range of restoration initiatives
• Acquisition of land by Council
• Changes in the wider legislative framework
• A growing understanding of the role of peat lakes in climate change and the impacts of climate change
• New ecological and recreation projects initiated
• Council has adopted a restoration plan for this reserve
• Visitation has increased
• The two fixed term leases on the reserve have expired.

The current reserve management plan was made operative in 2009. It covers 8 parcels of land classified as recreation reserve administered under the Act, totalling an area of 149.0913 hectares. The land is both Crown and Council-owned, with Council being the administering body for all of these land parcels.

Council has decided to include 114 Bank Road property (Lot 6 DP 526717), the paper roads surrounding the recreation reserve land adjoining Lake Ngā Roto and any future land acquired to improve the health of Lake Ngā Roto in the new RMP.

The land that will be covered in the new plan is shown in this map.

Council allocated funding through the Long-Term Plan 2021 – 2031 to undertake the review.

The new plan will inform a funding business case to be considered as part of the 2025 - 2034 Long Term Plan.

Lake Ngā Roto is culturally significant to mana whenua, particularly Ngāti Apakura and Ngāti Hikairo.

Five Pā sites are recorded around the lake margins highlighting their long and historic occupation. The lake and surrounds are within the area where the Hingakākā Battle was fought, and the lake is considered wāhi tapu (sacred site). It is the place where Uenuku (a significant taonga for Waikato iwi and the Waipā community) was stored for safe keeping and later discovered and returned to iwi.

As a taonga tuku iho (heirloom), mana whenua wish to enable Mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge) into decision making, to protect and restore the five Pā sites and other cultural values, and to pursue traditional and contemporary activities and tikanga.

For more information visit tearawai.nz/explore-ngaroto.

Lake Ngā Roto is a peat lake of local, regional, and national importance classified as ‘acutely threatened’.

Council has worked collaboratively with mana whenua, Waikato Regional Council, the Waipā Peat Lakes and Wetlands Accord (Peat Lakes Accord), adjoining landowners and volunteers for over four decades to improve the health and wellbeing of the lake.

This has included significant restoration planting, pest and weed control, development of sediment traps, installation of a diversion channel to stop water from Lake Ngā Rotoiti entering the lake, an adjustable weir to maintain a year-round minimum lake level and acquiring land to retire and revegetate marginal grazing land.

Despite the restoration initiatives, the water quality and ecological conditions have continued to degrade because of the long-term impacts of historic drainage and vegetation clearance, nutrient loading from land management practices within the 1,846-hectare lake catchment, climate change and the impacts of invasive pants and animals.

The lake has “flipped” into a suspended algae/phytoplankton state and sediment dominated state. The lake is now categorised as ‘supertrophic’ (having very high amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen leading to excessive algae growth).

Proactive mitigation to improve the water quality will take years to realise the benefit due to the nutrient loaded sediment.

It is proposed that the RMP review consider renaming the lake and reserve land to mana whenua’s preferred name in accordance with Council’s Naming Policy 2021 and evaluate the most appropriate Reserves Act classification for the land administered under the RMP.

Lake Ngā Roto is a natural feature and landscape that is significant regionally and locally and it will increase in importance through conservation efforts to restore the lake and its margins.

The change in classification supports Council’s primary focus set out in this plan – the protection and restoration of Lake Ngā Roto. The public will still have freedom of entry and access to the reserve, visitor infrastructure can still be developed and activities requiring leases, licences and other approvals that support public use and enjoyment of the reserve may still be granted. The Reserves Act Schedule 1 lease provisions are the same for recreation and scenic reserves.

Council’s tangible actions include:

• Continuing to implement the restoration plan to revegetate and protect identified areas
• Extending the lake buffers through acquisition
• Sharing information with landowners so they understand the importance of on-farm actions
• Strong advocacy to Waikato Regional Council, and
• Enabling research and monitoring to evaluate potential in-lake restoration options and provide guidance on council’s management of the weir and drainage channels.

The plan identifies a number of advocate and support policies for actions under the Waikato Regional Council and/or private landowner’s control. These are the actions which will have the more significant impacts on restoring the lake’s health.