With our goat control strategy well underway it is good to update the community and talk numbers.
Since March 2014, 663 goats have been removed from the stage 1 area which is mainly located around the new planting area. Hares became a problem after our first community planting day. Extra funding was made available by HBRC to control them and to date 12 hares have been removed from the area.
The planted area is already changing with a lot of birds coming back and thriving especially King Fishers at this stage.
Our pest control strategy is key to the success of our project so thank you to HBRC and DOC for helping out.
Stage 2 of the strategy will start very soon initially with some ground musters followd up by ground control.
If you want to know more about our pest strategy clic on our “pest control” Tab

Kia ora

Due to the wet weather making access to the planting area impossible, the second community planting at Pat and Susan O’Brien’s property (Taharoa Trust) scheduled for 27th July 2014 has been postponed until further notice.
We apologise for that and hope to reschedule this fantastic event later on in August.

The DOC team was quite impressed by the quality of the fencing work done at Whangawehi and the pest control put in place to protect the new planted area. They established a few weeks ago 100 very rare specimen trees ( Pittosporum obcordatum)   

Etymology : Pittosporum: pitch seed – obcordatum: reversed heart shape

Current Conservation status : 2012 – Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable

 Primarily threatened by loss of habitat. Initially this was caused by the widespread clearance of the easterly, lowland alluvial forest habitats this species favours. However, decline has continued, even within many protected forest remnants due to subtle changes in forest microclimate and hydrology, bought about by habitat fragmentation, and also many populations are threatened by the spread of aggressive weeds, which suppress (or prevent) regeneration, and can smother adult trees. Some locations consist of single trees, which are then in effect reproductively extinct. However, like many Pittosporum, plants may be either female, male or sexually inconstant, so some isolated individuals can set seed.

The Whangawehi Catchment Management Group has been nominated to :

– Pride of NZ Award. The WCMG has been successful and the judges have chosen our nominee Kathleen Mato as one of our 72 regional finalists (that’s 3 finalists, in each of the 6 award categories, in each of the 4 PONZ regions – Upper north, Mid north, Lower north and South Island). This is a significant National recognition for the group, well done. A TV crew should film Kathleen and other members of the community at the end of this month.

– New Zealand River Award :

 The group has been selected for the NZ River Award (Community story category). The 2014 winners will be announced at the River Awards Dinner on 27 November in Wellington. Professor Gary Jones from Canberra will be the guest speaker at the dinner.

Due to wet weather conditions, the volunteers haven’t been able to access the site and prepare the planting day (bring the trees down and drill the holes). The community planting day has been postponed to Sunday the 27th of July, same time, same place.

Our apologies for that.

Doug Jones from Te Wai Maori Trust came to visit the project today. Doug was impressed by the progress made by the Whangawehi community and volunteers and appreciated  the work and  logistic involved in such a large scale project.

Thanks Doug for keeping in contact with the group and a big thank you the Wai Maori Trust for their support.

Several volunteers gathered all week at Pat and Sue’s to prepare our next community planting day planned for Sunday the 20th of July. The group has planted so far 8000 native trees but a lot more need to be planted. If you want to make a difference come and join us for a fun day out.

For more info visit our Community planting days tab.

First AGM followed by a Hui A Iwi

Whangawehi Catchment Management Group
Inaugural Annual General Meeting
Mihi/Karakia:
Apologies
Chairperson’s Report
Treasurer’s Report
Annual Financial Statements
Election of Committee Members
General Business
Closing Karakia
Date: 2nd August 2014
Time: 10.00am
Where: Kaiuku Marae

Following on

Hui A Iwi/Community Day

Mihi/Karakia:

Apologies

Information sharing and update on group activities

Closing Karakia

Date and Venue as above

Time: 1pm

Nau mai haere mai

 Rae Te Nahu

Secretary

Whangawehi Catchment Management Group

Pat and Sue O’Brien, local farmers, were delighted to see 50 volunteers joining in with the community planting day on Saturday the 28th of June. Alongside the local community, people came from as far away as Napier and Gisborne to celebrate the first planting initiative of the Whangawehi Catchment Management Group. Rae Tenahu, secretary for the group noted “I was blown away by the number of people who turned up and the progress we have made in one day!” “I really enjoyed seeing all these young Tamariki who will lead this project in the future.”
A core group of volunteers spent the week organising the event, carting trees to the planting site and preparing holes with post hole borers to make the job easier for the volunteers.
Nic Caviale, the project coordinator explained “Site access is quite difficult especially under wet conditions, which makes the whole operation tricky and weather dependent.” “I was planning on planting 2000 trees but we ended up establishing 5000!”
Part of the restoration plan is to fence off the entire course of the Whangawehi Stream and establish native trees. The O’Briens and Grandy Lake Forest have agreed to retire 10 ha of riparian margins for conservation planting and will have established 30 000 native plants at the completion of the project. To achieve this, the members of the group receive financial and technical support from a wide range of agencies and partners.
The community of Whangawehi will be having a second community day, Saturday the 20th of July. If you are interested in joining us, please check out our blog (https://whangawehi.wordpress.com) or contact Pat and Sue O’Brien.