Our volunteers are excited to go weedbusting for the first time at a wetland just north of Amberley township. This 24ha site of former farmland, known as Amberley Swamp, was purchased by Hurunui District Council in 2024 as a flood retention buffer. Now that stock have been removed, grey willow saplings are springing up and risk taking over the wetland.

We’ll be targeting willow wands, (up to waist height), to cut and paste with herbicide gel. Small seedlings can be hand pulled. We will be working alongside volunteers from the local Amberley Environmental Restoration Group who are aiming to restore the degraded wetland with native planting and trapping.

Directions: Meet by 9.30 at the site which is on Stanton Road (off Douglas Road or Watties Road from SH1). Park on the grass verge by the cattle yards on the eastern side of Stanton Rd.

Carpooling can be arranged. Please RSVP with email and phone contact to Belinda Meares, 0221 7600383 [email protected] or Rima Herber, HDC, [email protected] 0278722329

We’ll bring gloves and tools or you can BYO, e.g. secateurs and pruning saws. Morning tea is provided.

Wear sturdy footwear that you don’t mind getting wet, and have dry shoes to change into. If the site gets too wet due to prior rain, we’ll go weedbusting instead at Ashworths Beach.

Click here for more about Hurunui Weedbusters