Caring for Waikanae Stream

WAIKANAE STREAM PLANTING: Join a community effort to restore our city waterway from 1pm-3pm, on Sunday, August 19. Pictured here back in March are Chris Crow and Phyllis McGann who helped to clear weeds along the Waikanae Stream bank so that plants and shrubs could flourish. Pictures by Liam Clayton

Twenty-four volunteers spent two hours collecting litter, weeding and spreading mulch at the Waikanae Stream on Sunday afternoon.

The long-term community project to replace rubbish and weeds with native plants resumed for 2018, with workers clearing kikuyu to allow flaxes and shrubs to thrive.

Organising team member, Jason Akuhata-Brown said that the volunteers did a great job of clearing weeds from most of the length of the Grey Street Skatepark.

“Weeding and picking up rubbish isn’t glamorous, but our volunteers really get into the mahi (task)and we have a lot of fun and some interesting conversations as we work.

“Caring for the planted areas is a key part of this project.

“We are focused on ensuring that the hard work of the last eight years does not slip backwards and we’re looking forward to a time when the shrubs we’ve planted will be big enough to shade out the weeds,” Mr Akuhata-Brown said.

A key feature of the project has been organising a limited number of short working bees each year to extend and maintain plantings in a way that does not cause burnout among volunteers.

Two further work days plannedTwo further work days are planned for 2018, one in May and the other in July.

Sunday saw five new volunteers get involved and support the effort.

“It’s always interesting to see the differen t people who come to each work day and we get a great spread of ages from pre-schoolers to retirees.

“Right from our first rubbish collection in 2011, volunteers have been keen to help clean up this little awa (stream) and the flourishing native plants show the hard work is well worth the effort.”