It was a clear sunny autumn day for the inaugural Hurunui Weedbusters event on the Waiau Uwha River on Saturday 4 May. Six volunteers and the HDC Water and Land Coordinator, Rima Herber, cleared tree lupin and other weeds from an island in the river that has been managed as a safe haven for the rare birds that nest on the riverbed. Birds such as terns, wrybills, dotterels and native gulls nest on the bare gravels of Canterbury’s braided rivers, but their eggs and baby birds are a tempting feed for cats, rats, stoats and hedgehogs. Without protection, survival of chicks can be as low as 6%. With careful management, the black-fronted tern colony on Sharks Tooth Island had 96% hatching success in the 2023 season.

Clearing the island of weeds is an essential part of protecting the birds, as they won’t nest where there isn’t open gravel, and predators are attracted to vegetated areas where there is cover to hide in. In just one morning the seven members of the Hurunui Weedbusters crew removed over 1000 tree lupin plants, as well as other emerging weeds such as gorse, broom, alder, old man’s beard and blackberry. Lupin are a particular problem as they’ll grow to over a metre in a season. Saturday was a great example of how rewarding and enjoyable it can be to get together with others, in the beautiful Hurunui landscape, to do an important service to the environment.