Iwi returns weed-choked site to native wetland

Tuesday, 7 February 2023

The Native Restorations team led by Terry Stewart, top right, who owns the company.

Penny Wardle is a former Marlborough Express reporter who now works for Te Hoiere Project

Willows and pines are being drilled and injected with herbicide, as a Ngāti Kuia initiative focused on Ruapaka Wetland beside SH6 near Canvastown begins.

The weed control is part of Te Hoiere/Pelorus Restoration Project which is bringing people together to restore the catchment ki uta ki tai, from mountaintops into the sea.

A team from Native Restorations Ltd has been on the ground for three weeks, controlling weeds around the perimeter of the wetland.

Large trees are being “drilled and killed” and saplings and branches cut and pasted with herbicide gel. Old man’s beard and convolvulus vines, broom, hawthorn and introduced grasses are also targeted.

* Project connecting people and nature

Shannon Huntley offloads native seedlings at Ngati Kuia's native plant nursery at Titiraukawa, near Pelorus Bridge.

* Government funds more than 100 conservation jobs in top of the south

* Landowners encouraged to join Pelorus River restoration survey

Native Restorations owner, Terry Stuart, says the crew is enjoying taking first steps towards transforming a wetland choked with weeds to something like its original state.

Phil Harema from the Native Restorations drills a willow ahead of filling the holes with a herbicide gel as part of the Te Hoiere/Pelorus Restoration Project.

Ngāti Kuia Kaitiaki mō Te Hoiere Awa, Shannon Huntley, is excited to see foliage already turning yellow. Helicopter spraying of the wetland’s interior is expected to start this week, depending on weather.

FuturEcology of Nelson planned the restoration, following a community meeting in Havelock then consultation with Project partners who supported heli-spraying as highly accurate and enabling immediate progress.

Areas of open water, culturally significant sites and existing native vegetation would be mapped and avoided.

Native Restorations team member Israel Hebberd hard at work.

A Ngāti Kuia horticulture crew of nine have been approved to do follow-up work including planting, after completing a Level 3 Certificate in Horticulture.

Seedlings are being grown in a Ngāti Kuia nursery at Titiraukawa near Pelorus Bridge.

Ngāti Kuia Te Pou Hāpai Taiao, Ruihana Smith, says Ruapaka Wetland is deeply significant as a place where tūpuna gathered kai including tuna/eels and kōura/freshwater crayfish.

Environmental DNA testing of water in the wetland revealed the presence a wide range of species including threatened native freshwater fish, Dwarf Galaxias.

Many tūpuna lie in an urupā alongside the restoration site including renowned Rangatira, carver and tohunga Meihana Kereopa who provided evidence to the Native Land Court in the 1880s-90s and Ruihana’s great-great nana, Paranihia Hamuera.

“The site will be unrecognisable when transformed from invasive weeds to a native wetland, a snapshot of what this special place was like 800 years ago,” he says.

Te Hoiere Project partners include representatives of the community, Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne, Marlborough District Council, Department of Conservation, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry for Primary Industries, NZ Landcare Trust, Forest & Bird, Waka Kotahi and Fonterra which made a generous donation to the Ruapaka restoration.

The Project is aligned with Kotahitanga mō Te Taiao which promotes collective action towards enhancing and protecting biodiversity in Te Tauihu, the top of the South Island.