One of the biggest environmental challenges facing this island country is how to restore its native forests and streams. Huge swaths of the once widespread forests were cut down, and were mostly replaced by pasture. In many places, invasive plant species quickly moved in and took over. As a result, native bird, fish, and lizard populations have plummeted.

This project will help re-establish native plants in an area where a native species of fish, the whitebait or īnanga, lays its eggs. The New Zealand Department of Conservation classifies the fish as threatened and nationally vulnerable. It lists habitat disturbance as the cause.

Last year, on the northern tip of the South Island, extreme storms swept dead trees and debris from the mountains down to the stream beds, extensively damaging the plants where īnanga normally spawn. Our project partner will replant a small area that was damaged. They chose this spot because it is where freshwater meets saltwater—which is exactly where the īnanga spawn.

Community volunteers from Otuwhero Trust will do the planting. Since 2011, Ōtūwhero Trust volunteers have removed invasive willows from the banks of the Ōtūwhero and planted more than  20,000 trees and sedges in the wetland and along the riverbank. They have also eliminated over 3,000 wilding pines (fast-spreading invasive trees) in the hill forest, which improves the downstream environment.

Tasman Bay Guardians, another local NGO, will support the volunteers with site preparation, planting labor, and site maintenance. They will also conduct community education and engagement, helping people realize what has been lost—and how they can restore it.