Clean-up Day At Waiōtahe Estuary Seeks Helpers
Clean-up Day At Waiōtahe Estuary Seeks Helpers
Join the Bryans Beach community group
for a beach clean-up day at the Waiōtahe estuary and start
the New Year on the right note.
This committed community group started in 2007 with six committee members representing about 80 households in the Bryans Beach area. They organised their first estuary clean up in 2014.
Local resident, Judy Lewis, said that it was a beautiful part of the district and the group is on the look-out for willing volunteers to help keep it that way.
“We have been working hard for ten years to help keep our corner of New Zealand beautiful and we’d love others to come along and join us on 11 January.
“Yes it is hard work but it is really rewarding. It ticks so many New Year Resolution boxes – it is community, out in the outdoors and helping our environment! As a bonus, you won’t go unrewarded as the Regional Council is putting on a sausage sizzle afterwards,” Ms Lewis said.
The Bryans Beach community group takes on any project affecting the community, from installing speed bumps along the beach front to weed eradication, largely targeting gorse and pampas on stop banks, river edges and beach and back dune areas, and planting native trees.
Its members have installed a series of predator traps and bait stations to help boost bird populations. They have placed 80 DOC traps from the Ohiwa Harbour to the Waiōtahe spit across from the pipi beds and approximately 55 bait stations. As a result the number of shore and estuarine birds in the area has increased significantly. Many hours are also spent monitoring the NZ dotterel and variable oyster-catcher nests to help the chicks survive. Rat and Mustelid numbers have dramatically decreased.
The group has also been involved with a trial to try and reduce rabbit numbers in the area to help with restoration planting and the regeneration of the coastal dune network.
Details:
• Thursday 11 January 9:30am
• Bryans Beach - Ōhiwa Beach Rd (on the edge of Ōhiwa Harbour and Waiōtahe estuary).
• Volunteers are advised to wear old clothes and bring gumboots and gloves.
• Sausage sizzle once the clean-up work is finished
• If you’re interested in helping out please phone Judy Lewis on (07) 315 4686.
ENDS