Riparian planting Waikawa Stream creating a healthier environment.
Over recent months, Waikawa Beach Environment Group (WBEG), alongside Horizons Regional Council, Ngāti Wehi Wehi, local landowners Caroline and Te Roera, volunteers, whānau, and local rangatahi, has been working on an ongoing riparian restoration project along the Waikawa Stream.
What began with around 1000 native plants lined up ready for planting in April quickly became a lesson in working with nature. Heavy rain, high stream flows, and waterlogged paddocks forced several postponements, but the community spirit behind the project never faded.
Instead, the project adapted.
Small pop-up planting sessions emerged between weather windows, with volunteers and Horowhenua College students helping get plants into the ground bit by bit. Behind the scenes, practical volunteers also stepped forward to help with weedeating, weed control, and preparing planting areas to give the new plants the best possible start.
By May, momentum was building again. Community planting days brought together volunteers of all ages, all contributing in their own way – from planting native sedges and grasses along the stream margins, to helping organise, support, and encourage others.
The project focuses on strengthening streambanks, reducing erosion, improving water quality, and creating healthier habitat along the awa over time. While the plants are still small now, they represent a long-term investment in the environmental health of Waikawa Beach.
Just as importantly, the planting days have strengthened community connections. There has been a real sense of shared purpose throughout the project — neighbours working alongside each other, tamariki getting involved, conversations shared over spades and gumboots, and people contributing however they could.
This mahi is ongoing, and every planting session, volunteer hour, and plant in the ground helps move the project forward.
Photo kindly provided by Charlie Strivens.
Watch out for the nesting birds.
We're very lucky to have an extraordinary variety of native and migrating birdlife in our local environment. Depending on the season, we can see Caspian Terns, Dotterels, Godwits, Oystercatchers, Pied Stilts and many others thriving in our unique coastal environment alongside the ubiquitous Seagull. But they also have to co-habit with us, humans, and that can be challenging.
Most of these birds nest in the open, on the sand and in piled up driftwood, in the dunes, the estuary and on the soft dry sand of the open beach where they benefit from the warmth of the sand to incubate their eggs.
As shown. in the images here, the 'nests' are often not well defined like a birds nest in a tree, so they can be difficult to spot.
We continually monitor the estuary, beach and dunes for nests and eggs, and have built a map showing the locations of nests we have found. These are not permanent sites and will move around as the seasons, weather and the birds' nesting habits change. But it gives beach goers an idea of their vulnerability and what to watch out for.
We ask everyone to be extra careful when visiting these areas, as dogs, horses, 4x4s, quads and motorcycles can, and have, inadvertently destroyed their nests and the budding life within.
One of the most obvious behaviours that can be observed is when birds will swoop around an 'intruder' if they venture too close to a nest. People are often frightened by this and dogs, of course, are inquisitive and will often chase them... but the birds are just trying to warn us that they are protecting the next generation.
Photos kindly provided by Stephen Betts
These six key words describe our 'reason for being'. They are drawn from our values and form the basis for our foundational pillars. They are the fundamental attributes of our group and remind us every day of our commitment to the diversity of our environment and the unique community we are fortunate to live in. They form the basis of our key messages to all of our stakeholders, whether they be visitors, professionals, scholars, public servants or school children.