Te Ripo O Hinemata Wetland Restoration Action Plan‏

Wetlands Update

Kia ora anõ te whānau,

We have recently met with DOC to talk about weed control and biodiversity surveys on our wetlands.

This week Sue Moore from DOC worked with Mike Patterson from Horizon to visited our wetlands to see what's in there by setting 20 gee-minnow traps (only over one day) and the results were:

·         1st site (closest to rail overbridge) under some willow, with a small Carex, surrounded by Canary Reed Grass  2 traps – 1 inanga and 2 small short-finned eels (the Australasian bittern’s favourite food :-))

·         2nd site (further down stopbank/edge) big cabbage tree and two willow surrounded by Canary Reed Grass 4 traps – 1 small mudfish and a water beetle

·         3rd site (further again down stopbank) willows and canary reed grass 4 traps – no fish

·         4th site (around the back of the wetland), less canary reed grass and more cabbage trees and other native vegetation 10 traps in a variety of sites – 2 mudfish (one was quite big) and a tadpole.

The water levels were very high today and it was difficult to travel around the site.

 Sue also cleared and rebaited three DOC traps that had been set along the edge (and not cleared for a very long time) of the stopbank on our property – one was sprung and empty, the second had a medium-sized mustelid (probably a stoat), the third had a small mustelid (probably a weasel or possibly a young stoat) - but they had been dead so long that no fur was left and it was difficult to determine their species.

 Bird wise – it was a brief visit, but they did see kingfisher, kahu, pukeko, and black shag.

If you're not sure what mustelids are, have a look at our early back pages cause we've posted pictures and info about them on this site before, along with info about our very very rare mudfish, and some bird pics to identify them, too.

Please come to the AGM on Saturday 10th December (at Kereru Marae at 10am) and we'll be able to give more info, but more importantly you'll be able to visit the wetlands and hopefully help plant a couple of plants in there, to help further restore our wetlands (so maybe bring a pair of gumboots and a spade of some sort) - hakari at the marae afterwards!