Landmark covenant to protect environmental restoration for future generations
Selwyn District Council media release: 7th September 2026
Brian and Robyn Patchett will have their remarkable environmental restoration efforts at their Springston property protected through a landmark covenant agreement with the Selwyn District Council.
Under the umbrella of Te Ara Kakariki, the Springston family over the past 10 years have planted almost 10,000 native plants to transform 1.6 hectares of bare paddocks into native wetland forest to attract native birdlife, improve water quality and restore habitat for other natural wildlife and fauna.
The covenant is attached to the property title and will protect the restored area in perpetuity, even when the property changes hands.
Brian Patchett explains how the couple had been looking at different ways to protect their award-winning handiwork for future generations, but their advancing years put a bit more urgency into the issue.
“The years start to get a little bit more precious as we get older, so I started telling people that if they didn’t hurry up, we wouldn’t be here to help out,” laughs Patchett, who received help from a neighbour involved in the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust and their family lawyer to get the ball rolling.
“The Selwyn District Council had never used a conservation covenant before, so when Brian provided a similar type of trust deed from the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust, we could use that as a framework to create a new covenant document for our district,” says Denise Ford from the SDC Environmental Team, who adds that other landowners have made enquiries for a similar covenant to be added to their title.
The Selwyn District Council has supported the project through the contestable Selwyn Natural Environment Fund and Ford is pleased the covenant will now protect that investment of public money for the long term.
The fund assists landowners, individuals, community groups, and manawhenua to protect, restore, and enhance the natural environment.
Pratchett is grateful for the financial support he has received through the Natural Environment Fund and encourages other landowners to tap into the available support.
Applications for this year’s funding round will close on September 20.
“We have been planting for nearly 10 years now, and it is not cheap, so we are grateful that the council has been supporting us for the last few years. Without that support, it would not have been possible to make so much progress,” says Patchett, who has already started restoring the adjacent piece of paddock, which in time will also be covered by the covenant.
Patchett has a huge sense of relief that the covenant is now in place.
“We have been working on this restoration project for years and it’s good to have this covenant in place for our family and the mokopuna, because they have also put in a lot of time and work to make this happen,” says Patchett, who appreciates the support from his four children, their families and friends to help out on dedicated family planting days, weed and pest control, and monitoring trap lines.
“This small developing forest has become a happy gathering place for our whanau and friends for birthdays and all manner of celebrations.”
Robyn and Brian Patchett have owned the property since 1988 and have had plenty of challenges with hares and frosts, weeds, dry spells and surface flooding.
“It’s not a surprise it gets wet when you live in a place called Swamp Road, but in our first 30 years here the water never crossed the road. With more intense rain over the last 10 years, the road has flooded every second year,” says Brian Patchett who has been interested in protecting the environment from an early age.
“Our grandfathers came out here and chopped all the bush down and now we have come full circle three generations later by replanting that same bush.”
Apply for the Selwyn Natural Environment Fund. Applications close on Sunday 20th September 2026.