Near the pottery on Wainui Road, at the Ōpōtiki side of the s-bends and across from the Nukuhou River you may have noticed native trees starting to show themselves. This stream and wetland restoration project was started by Marli Dee and Shane Cottle with support from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council seven years ago. It is growing well. Marli says, “It has been an amazing experience. We initially started it as we were aware of the presence of native fish and invertebrates in the drain. Two perched culverts created a barrier to fish passage from the sea to the environments upstream.
Since restoration and removal of the culverts we have observed large schools of inanga during the day and healthy populations of banded kokopu and eels both longfin and shortfin at night. The invertebrate population seems to be thriving”.
Marli and Shane, who purchased the former grazing paddock of about 2 ha so it could be restored to what it was prior to farming, enjoy seeing how quickly birds and other wildlife have returned. “It is a small pocket but we have realised how important it is with so many of us living along coastlines and the barrier that culverts and drains create to our freshwater species that depend on part of their life cycle being at sea”.
Another new experience for the couple was the unexpected amount of silt that is carried down from the properties upstream. One pond within the restoration area was dug to specifically contain the silt and prevent it from entering the Ōhiwa harbour. The initial expectation was that the pond would have to be dug out about every five years. The reality is that the pond fills up every four to five months, and it’s an expensive exercise to empty it with a digger. It is reminder of how fencing off waterways and riparian planting is a beneficial practice to prevent this amount of silt from entering the harbour. Marli and Shane highly recommend this type of project to people in the area. It has been a very satisfying and rewarding experience for them.
