Environment

Christchurch City Council is now leading an investigation into how human and animal waste is entering its waterways.

Images show the seabed is starting to look like it did before the earthquake, but it could take up to 12 years to fully recover, NIWA says.

Māori could be billions of dollars out of pocket from proposals to review the Emissions Trading Scheme released today, an advocate says.

GNS scientists have tentatively identified them as vertebrae from two species - both more than 70 million years old.

The government wants the public's input on possible changes to forestry carbon farming, including imposing restrictions about pine trees.

The government has floated a series of options to reform the Emissions Trading Scheme, with the highest ranked option one which sets up a whole new additional ETS scheme.

Along the fence lines of the cyclone-devastated Esk Valley, red roses still turn their little faces towards the pale winter sun, and their unusually strong flush this year has turned heads.

The Climate Change Commission has said the ETS in its current form is a threat to achieving the country's reduction targets.

It was announced to great fanfare in 2015, but years of negotiations have failed to secure an agreement over a Kermadec ocean sanctuary.

Their efforts are being marked as part of National Volunteer Week.

Country Life: From the back country to the coast, you won't find many places or people untouched by the claws of cyclones Hale and Gabrielle, which ravaged Tai Rāwhiti at the start of the year. Audio