Foundation North support the Papakura Stream Restoration Project
We are very excited and grateful to partner with Foundation North on our Papakura Stream Restoration Project in South Auckland. Foundation North have generously allocated $250,000 to this catchment scale project over the next two years. Thanks to this support we will be able to take on a new full-time coordinator to help us grow and improve the programme. With this funding we aim to improve monitoring and maintenance of our planting sites as well as improving water quality monitoring. We will also be introducing bird counts and long-tail bat monitoring and protection so we can better measure the impact of the programme over time.
The Papakura Stream Restoration Project has grown quickly since it began in 2021 and this funding will allow it to expand even further. The project kicked off in 2021 with the planting of more than 12,000 native trees, grasses and shrubs on 4 project sites and 350 metres of stream fenced off. In 2022, the project was considerably scaled up and a number of new sites identified. By the end of 2022 more than 56,000 native plants have been planted by CVNZ. Not to mention vast areas of invasive weed removal and litter clean ups in urban areas. By the end of 2023, almost 95,000 plants will have been planted in the catchment.
The Papakura Stream Catchment was once covered in indigenous forest, including kahikatea swamp, but most of this habitat has been lost due to agriculture, industry and urban development. Tree cover is now extremely low and the upper rural Papakura Stream now has one of the highest E. coli levels in Auckland and ranks among the worst 25% of rural sites in New Zealand. This has reduced habitat for native species and increased sediment and pollution entering the stream and travelling to the precious Manukau Harbour. The Papakura Stream Restoration Project aims to improve the health of the stream and the wider catchment through fencing of unprotected stream sections, removal of invasive weeds and restoration planting of riparian margins, hills and wetlands to restore linkages between indigenous forest remnants and the stream. You can read more about the project here: https://conservationvolunteers.co.nz/portfolio/papakura-stream-restoration/
Thank you to Foundation North. We are looking forward to growing the project and increasing our work protecting this important waterway because of your support.
