Hurunui Weedbusters at Waiau-Uwha River Restoration Site
22 June 2024
On a fine Saturday morning on 22 June, local volunteers and others from as far as Christchurch weeded native plants at a site on the banks of the Waiau-Uwha river. What a beautiful setting! This large restoration project on John Faulkner’s farm has been designed by planting specialist Sue McGaw, and both she and John were there to explain the background of the project and the characteristics of the plants selected. The site is located on a former Māori route, and was used as a campground (nohoanga) on the way to mahinga kai food gathering places. Among the 70 different species planted – all endemic within a 5km radius – are included traditional Māori medicinal plants. After only four years since planting began, Sue has identified 12 species that are already regenerating.
Our job was to release plants from long grass and encroaching weeds, to cut and poison old man’s bed and blackberry, and to remove protective guards from the more mature plants. Morning tea break was an opportunity to look out at the braided river islands, which are important habitat for endangered birds such as the black-fronted tern, wrybill and black-billed gull. An earlier Hurunui Weedbusters outing in May rooted out lupins from the Shark’s Tooth island nesting site there.