Every blade of grass counts!

That’s what Waikato Regional Council heard when it started its upper Waiomou catchment habitat enhancement project, working with landowners to retire and plant out riparian margins along the Tukutāpere, Rapurapu and Waiomou streams.

Hauraki Catchments Unit Lead Mike Houghton says the four-year project, which saw the council work in partnership with landowners and the Ministry for the Environment, sought to restore 48 kilometres of riparian margins through the control of overgrown willow and poplar trees and other pest plants, and by planting out a native corridor in their place.

“People said to me, ‘oh, every blade of grass counts’, and I said ‘well we need six metres’ … and in the end we had to source more plants than we ever thought we’d need because all the landowners were really generous with their setbacks, retiring larger margins than we’d asked for.

“This uptake and dedication meant we exceeded all our project targets, but by going above and beyond, we’ve been able to increase the project’s benefits. The wider margins can intercept more nutrients and run-off from reaching waterways, we’ve retired additional steep slopes which helps to prevent soil erosion, and we’ve been able to create way more habitat and corridors for our native wildlife.”

The completion of the upper Waiomou habitat enhancement project was celebrated last week (13 September 2024), with a group of landowners, stakeholders, contractors and staff visiting some of the restoration sites.

The project, which included partnership funding from the Ministry for the Environment, Fonterra and Ngā Whenua Rāhui, was able to provide landowners with up to 80 per cent of the costs of the restoration work completed.

The objectives of the project were:

• removal and thinning of overgrown poplars and willows that were either choking streams or at risk of collapse
• stock exclusion by fencing to keep stock away from stream sides
• pest plant control, by combining mulching and herbicide treatment to control a range of pest plants
• revegetation of riparian margins with native plants to connect the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park to the Waihou River – contributing to a biodiversity corridor, controlling streambank erosion and filtering nutrient run-off from farms.

In total, 36 environmental programme agreements with landowners enabled 49 hectares of land to be controlled for pest plants and retired, including 48 kilometres of fencing and revegetation with 225,344 native plants.

Les Kinred, a trustee of Te Hanga North Lands Trust, says when Waikato Regional Council first turned up about retiring riparian margins on Māori-owned land, “we were mighty suspicious”.

“But the information and advice they provide, and the mapping and the planning, it all proves to be very helpful,” says Les, with the trust retiring 3.5 hectares along 1.1 kilometres of stream length and putting nearly 15,000 plants into the ground.

Landowner Peter Bellamy says the project has been really worthwhile.

Peter, who retired 1.4 kilometres along both sides of the Waiomou Stream with setbacks of up to 20 metres, had a lot of large privet trees on his land, along with bind weed and Japanese honey suckle.

“I realise the maintenance of the plants is coming back to me but that seems easy compared to the work that has been done.

“And finding out about the native bat population, from an ecological assessment, that was a real buzz moment.”

Hauraki Coromandel Catchments Manager Emily O’Donnell says the initial driver of the project was to deal with a legacy issue relating to the planting of poplar and willows along streams banks.

“Many had reached maturity, were oversized and tipping over, exposing riverbanks and exacerbating erosion.

“None of this work would have possible without the vision and generosity of the landowners, who opened their farm gates and welcomed our staff and contractors.”

Romilly Cumming, Senior Analyst for the Ministry for the Environment, says beyond the environmental achievements, the biggest win of the project was the relationships that were built and strengthened.

“Relationships with mana whenua who have generously shared their stories of their tupuna on this whenua, relationships with landowners who bought into the vision, new relationships between local and central government, and new relationships that have been built with nurseries and contractors. It takes a lot of people with a range of skills to deliver a project like this.”

Waikato Regional Council’s upper Waiomou habitat enhancement project was funded $1.74 million by MFE’s Public Waterways and Ecosystems Restoration Fund as part of the Jobs for Nature programme. Fonterra also provided $50,000 as a funding supplement to Fonterra farmers to help meet fencing costs, while Ngā Whenua Rāhui gave more than $50,000 to Māori landowners’ for fencing costs, and to provide legal protection for the restoration works through kawenata and ongoing monitoring.

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