The recent work with urban and lifestylers has created not only great relationships but also enabled the group to help support the recovery of their properties post-cyclone.
“Our end goal is to have thriving native bush for our native birdlife, bats and other animals,” she says. “To support that we need the bush to be protected and enhanced. We need to stabilise our hillsides as much as we can and retire areas from farming and forestry into indigenous bush.
“This will help to heal our catchment.”
The catchment – which covers around 22,000 hectares comprising 10,000 of farmland, 10,000 of forestry, and the balance in lifestyle blocks – took a big hit in recent weather events.
In the last 18 months, they have received four-and-a-half metres of rain. The annual average is 1500mls.
“It is just what we didn’t need,” says Laura. “It’s not just the river coming up, but the damage to fence lines, tracks, infrastructure and native plants.”
She estimates the damage to be around $1million throughout the catchment. That includes 30,000 lovingly planted natives washed away, along with kilometres of fences that had been put up to protect the young plants and riparian areas from stock.
The volunteers were heartbroken to see the damage to their planting sites. There were tears but Laura says they are a resilient crew
and the replanting is well under way.
“We have had to do a major rethink about how we go forward post-cyclone, knowing the threat that floodwaters pose to our properties.
“Our planting this winter has been a lot more careful in terms of placement of plants, especially with the ongoing flooding events our catchment has seen over the last few years.
“Some property owners have chosen to plant wetlands and farm ponds and enhance existing native bush blocks, rather than plant the Waimatā River riparian margins.”
It means plants are a little further away from the water’s edge. She estimates there will be over 45,000 natives planted throughout the catchment over the winter, along with over 1250 erosion control poles, which are willows and poplars. A large majority of the native plants are sourced from locally grown species, with some grown from seeds collected within the catchment.
On Laura’s farm, they have worked on four wetlands instead of more planting around the Waimatā River.
“We had fenced our whole Waimatā River boundary (on their property) and planted 10,000 native plants in 2020. We have lost half of both of those. We have recovered what we can but decided to plant in safer areas this winter.”
The initial focus of the Waimatā Catchment Restoration Project had been on farmland up-river and included projects like fencing wetlands, pest control and planting natives to underline their commitment for those further down the waterway.
A lot of work has been done on predator control and biodiversity with Sam Gibson since he started with the New Zealand Landcare Trust. He designed all the predator control traplines in the upper catchment. He has also established strong relationships with the landowners.
“Sam saw the damage (from the cyclone) and wanted to help,” says Laura. “He put the call out and the funding and volunteer support came in, along with digger drivers from as far away as Taranaki and Raglan, who worked to help landowners recover from Gabrielle.”
The rain since the cyclones has continued the damage.
“The river flats throughout the catchment were destroyed in the cyclone but the ongoing rain has done more damage in the hill country.”
There are 570 traps set up across five properties in the upper catchment and Lou Kennard is employed as a trapper working for the group.
A lot of support has come in for the project to date from their dedicated committee which includes Lois Easton and Dame Anne Salmond and her late husband Jeremy. Financial support has come from the Ministry for Primary Industries, Ministry for the Environment and Department of Conservation, with other support from Jobs for Nature.
But there is more to this than money.
“It is not just investing in us, it is about seeing us as a pilot for what other catchments can do,” says Laura. “Other groups are few and far between in our region. We only received financial support post-cyclone because we are an established identity.
“There is a lot of work that goes into forming a catchment group. We have been so lucky with the support we have been given and I want to help support as many other catchment groups as I can to get set up around our region.”
She encourages people in the wider region to do similar projects on a smaller scale.
“I do feel very proud to be involved in this work,” says Laura who already has the next generation involved.
Her son George was four when the catchment group was started and has been involved in so many ways including educating his peers at school about pests and the importance of pest control.
