The last few weekends have seen a few planting and weeding activities up and down the creek.
STEPS is very grateful for funding from the Albert-Eden and Waitematā Local Boards to get these projects up and running. Local board members Margi Watson, Alex Bonham and Christina Robertson all turned up on various days, rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in to get the actual work done.
Planting at Roy Clements Treeway
A couple of Saturdays were spent putting in some enrichment plants at Roy Clement Treeway. Including the wetland, and on the true left bank of the creek where the creek is not shaded, which affects stream temperature.
Conservation Volunteers New Zealand Weeding
CVNZ came in to give us a hand fighting back privet at Norwood Reserve. We spent a couple of hours cutting it back to allow light in on the planting we did last year and the seedlings which are springing up.
Planting at Kanuka St site
370 plants went in behind Motat at the Kanuka St site. If you’d like to have a look you can walk down to the end of Moa Reserve and look across the creek. A mixture of tarairi, manuka, puriri psuedopanax, titoki, mahoe, and other species suitable for lava flow forest and also for the wetland area.
The Pt Chevalier Air Scouts will shortly be planting out the last remaining block which will join up their existing plantings and STEPS plantings. A historic moment!
Kate McKessar from Whitebait Connection paid the Motat Lava Flow Forest site a visit and searched her way through clumps of oioi and grasses with bravery and enthusiasm. With success! She found inanga eggs in the grasses. We hadn’t realised the breeding area for inanga extended so far towards the sea. It’s encouraging to see this native fauna in this habitat and will influence the species we plant on the riverbank. We’ve also moved some traps closer around the area as rats and mice are partial to inanga caviar.
It’s great to work more closely with other groups who care for the environment, have specialist knowledge and are working region-wide.
Look closely; those little drops are eggsKate finds inanga eggs
Alex Bonham from the Waitematā Local Board pulled on her boots to visit the Kanuka St lava flow forest restoration site behind Motat 2. Despite losing her pen somewhere in the weeds she made copious notes and made encouraging and enthusiastic comments to the small group of Monday morning volunteers who battle morning glory, alligator weed, wattle, etc, etc. She clearly understands the importance of preserving this unique environment.
It’s great to have a board member come and see one of the very few remaining examples of lava flow forest in Auckland and the work we’re doing to restore it.
