Our Kaupapa

Working Towards a Better Tomorrow

Beginning as a volunteer organisation in 2017, we received funding from MPI 1 Billion Trees in 2020 for a three-year catchment restoration project in the South Hokianga. Within 12 months we then secured further funding from Pub Charities, Foundation North and Ministry for the Environment Jobs For Nature - Freshwater Improvement Fund - to expand our work into a four-year project which now:

Employs five full-time and six part-time kaimahi
Hires local contractors and consultants
Provides training and school programmes
Grows native trees

Our target under the project is to establish 250,000 native, eco-sourced plants and restore 80 hectares of riparian, wetland and erosion prone land around the south Hokianga and completing 70km of fencing and 60 ha of pest plant control, working with landowners, iwi/hapu/whanau and communities to restore 80 hectares of freshwater catchments across Hokianga and it's freshwater ecosystems.

Catchment Restoration

THE KEY CONCEPTS

Fencing and riparian planting have SO MANY benefits:

The shade and diversity provided by riparian planting improves the overall ecological health of waterways, which in turn enables more life to flourish.
The biomass helps reduce excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus running into waterways and promoting algal growth
It stabilises the banks reducing erosion loss of land
It helps to reduce sedimentation and siltation causing downstream effects such as silting up the harbour and estuaries, helping to protect breeding grounds for much of our beloved sea life.
Native biodiversity increases
Shade for stock and less liver fluke
Stock can be excluded from sensitive or hazardous environments (in bogs/wetlands/deep holes/tomos
Improves the aesthetic appearance
Ensures compliance with national environmental and freshwater regulations

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Eco Sourcing Seeds

Eco sourcing is important as it preserves the genetic diversity amongst plant communities within a region.

Botanists and conservationists regularly identify subtle differences in species e.g. Manuka between valleys and across regions which represents an evolution over the millennia at a species level.

Eco sourcing also ensures the fittest and most suitable propagated stock is planted in terms of catchment restoration- which leads to greater success of planting projects thus spurring on the movement to sustainably manage our freshwater ecosystems.

Building Capability

We believe in learning and sharing knowledge and we hope that by providing connectivity between community groups and roopu within our community we can collectively work towards improving the health of the harbour.

Building capability and supporting our community is a key outcome and we work holding workshops, hui, and wananga on a regular basis.

Our team has some great skills to share and a wide network of support and expertise to pull in when needed - from biosecurity and disease management through to project management, events, and community engagement.

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