Elite rowers lend muscle and mahi to Waikato River clean up mission

Monday, 7 December 2020

Waikato River Trails and Rowing New Zealand worked on riparian planting projects along the Waikato River in 2020.

Caring for 122,000 native plants along a 105km trail of the country’s longest river requires a lot of hard work and team effort.

So it’s fitting the elite athletes who use the Waikato River to train and compete, are also the ones helping to improve its water quality to ensure it remains healthy for generations to come.

Rowing New Zealand has teamed up with the Waikato River Trails Charitable Trust to maintain riparian planting along a section of the trust’s popular public cycle, running and walking trail.

Waikato River Trails general manager Glynn Wooller says the riparian planting acts as a buffer between agriculture, forestry and the Waikato river.

More than 52,000 people used the trail in 2019 which was divided into five sections following the river as it wriggled its way through the South Waikato district towards Taupō.

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The elite rowers spent an afternoon clearing weeds and mulching around flaxes at Little Waipā Reserve, at the southern end of Lake Karapiro.

Waikato River Trails general manager Glynn Wooller has been working with a group of elite rowers in the 11.5km Karapiro section of the trail since September.

He gave a rundown of the work during the most recent restoration day at Little Waipā Reserve, near Horahora Rd, about 31km south of Cambridge.

Rowing New Zealand’s Sam Bosworth has been organising groups of elite rowers to help with riparian planting and restoration work along the Waikato River Trails.

“We planted some species of flaxes on the edge of the river a few years ago and what we want to do today, is to cut back the grasses and weeds growing up, around the flax.

“Then we’re going to mulch to suppress the grass and weeds, so they’re not competing with the flaxes.”

He said the riparian planting along the trail would act as a buffer between farming and forestry operations, and the Waikato River.

They also helped with mulch around a well established block of native riparian planting a few kilometres from Little Waipā Reserve.

“By caring for the plants, they will just thrive. When the flaxes here flower, the birds will return to feed off them and that increases biodiversity.

“There are a lot of people come here to enjoy the free campground so it just provides a better environment.”

In November, Wooller and the rowers were about 2.5km down the road at Huihuitaha wetland, removing pest trees and doing some animal pest control to let the native understorey of the wetland revive.

“We poisoned and chopped down a lot of willows and the rowers, with their combined horse power, were able to drag out a lot of the trees from the wetland.”

It was part of a 12-year restoration programme for the wetland and the trust is about halfway through now.

Waikato River Trails and Rowing New Zealand, based at Lake Karapiro, were both supported by the Waikato River Authority, which had long term plans to promote projects that helped restore the river.

In 2018, the river authority set up a sponsorship agreement with Rowing New Zealand’s elite team to lead initiatives in the community around raising awareness of the need to restore and protect the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River.

The elite rowers’ work on the river trails was just one of many projects they had been involved with in the past two years.

Sam Bosworth is the coxswain of the New Zealand men’s eight rowing team and is a leading figure in Rowing New Zealand's efforts to raise public awareness of the river.

“Over the past few years we've created a learning module which we've used at various schools throughout the country, but more so in Hamilton and Cambridge, because they're more accessible and close to the lake.

“We teach students about how they can help the rowing community look after the Waikato River or their local waterways.”

Some schools had been involved in restoration sessions, similar to the one at Little Waipā Reserve.

“We do a Q&A, tell them about our work with the river and then we get into some work.

“It’s just a good opportunity to educate school rowers and to show them how much work the Waikato River Trails does so people can use the trail every day.”

Bosworth is from North Canterbury but was no stranger to the Waikato River or Lake Karapiro.

He had been rowing on the lake since 2010, when he was a teenager and is now based in Waikato with the New Zealand team.

“The Waikato River has provided a lot for us [rowers] and this is a good opportunity for us to give back.”