Transition notes Haumanu Wai

Kia ora and welcome. RTH is lucky to have a strong group of committed volunteers and passionate staff. Having strong community support is super important to us and this has to be front of mind in everything we do. You are very much part of the team and much of the mahi that RTH does blends across workstreams. Most people who volunteer with us are passionate about more than one aspect of our mahi!

During my time in the water role I have supported relevant kaupapa within RTH and have been lucky to build connection with other organisations that have expertise and interest in the area.

The water catchment role is an interesting one because it blends community engagement and active restoration. On the active restoration side, much of the mahi is related to other workstreams, for instance the eco-corridor and pest free kaupapa. In terms of community engagement, education is key, especially about the challenges facing our waterways and how individuals and organisation can minimise their impact.

We use a Waicare water testing kit across the streams on our peninsula to monitor water quality. These kits are excellent teaching tools. We are asked to test 3 streams 4 times a year. The streams we focus our testing on are Achilles, Northboro, and Bardia St reserve. There are plenty of other minor streams that could be tested, for instance in Hauraki or Kawerau. The data can be entered into waicare.org.nz.

Username: achilles

Password: Plant100++

We also have some funding from Waicare to promote a ‘Save the tuna’ programme, following mass tuna die-offs in the area. It is suspected these die-offs were the result of concrete runoff reaching the streams, so this is particularly about education around responsible dumping of building waste and stormwater and its links to the streams. This is a work in progress, with leaflets having been created to take around the community and put in hardware stores. We had also planned to run some events with stream or tuna experts and get the schools to design stencils for stormwater drains.

MTS are a great collaborator although they struggle with limited funding like the rest of us! They helped us set up a whitebait spawning habitat, ran a fish passage workshop with us and ran a kayak day at Narrowneck which we collaborated on for the land-based activities.

Chez Panapa chez@mountainstosea.org.nz is the primary contact.

Moanamana is part of the RŪNĀ programme run by Yachting New Zealand through the sailing clubs. It is a marine citizen science programme for schools with the aim to give tools to the sailing clubs to become mini ‘marine laboratories’ and give students the tools to learn about the moana and take action to protect it. https://www.runa-yachtingnz.org.nz/moanamana

The programme was trialled successfully in Wellington but is still in the process of being rolled out across the country. I have worked with the local sailing clubs – Wakatere Boating Club and Devonport Yacht Club – to see if they would be interested in taking part. Wakatere is busy running their own junior sailing programmes so are less keen on taking on more things. However, Geoff from Devonport Yacht Club is interested but lacks the connections to the schools. I believe this is where RTH can help to provide those connections and promote the programme to the schools, in conjunction with YNZ.

Alisa Torgesen is the YNZ rūnā coordinator: alisa@yachtingnz.org.nz

Geoff Evans (DYC): geoff.jane.evans@gmail.com

Mat Dunne (WBC junior/rūnā lead): matrdunne@outlook.com

Delayne Salthouse (WBC Sustainability): delayne.salthouse06@gmail.com

Devonport Yacht club run monthly Seatalks where they have all sorts of interesting speakers. These speakers range from sailors and adventurers to scientists, activists and more. Geoff Evans (email above) is always on the lookout for new speakers. RTH has collaborated on a number of Seatalks by organising speakers that typically have an environmental message. Geoff will be asking for some for next year.

A good resource for understanding water in the area is Auckland GeoMaps. This shows permanent streams, overland flow paths and stormwater assets. https://geomapspublic.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/viewer/index.html

Long term restoration has been happening at the Achilles stream with planting, weed and pest control. This year we also added some stream riffles – natural wood installations to encourage the stream to create bigger pools to support the tuna through summer.

We had a successful planting and water day at Northboro earlier in the year and I believe other spots in the area are on the planting plan for next year. The Northboro pond is a sediment hold that is occasionally dredged by contractors. When they dredged it this year they apparently removed (alive) over 300 tuna!

Lots of work has been done through the Bardia Reserve, especially by TGS students. There are multiple plantings, as well as boardwalks to help reduce sediment going into the repo. Unfortunately, this stream does get a lot of rubbish and sediment from the schools, building work and Lake Rd.

We started restoration at Charles St Reserve this year, removing masses of Madeira vine and other weeds. We also set up a short trapline. There is lots more to do in this area as the weeds are horrendous.

We didn’t do any major restoration work in Kawerau this year other than pest control. Phillip Moll has expressed concerns about the proliferation of pampas and the impact that could have on the shell banks and shorebird population.

In order to move forward in the marine space in a sustainable manner, I believe the key is to make connections to other organisations and people that have the marine and scientific expertise. We can then provide community support and local knowledge from the peninsula perspective. It would potentially be a mistake to try and reinvent the wheel when there are so many other groups doing great work in this space.

In the freshwater space, I think we need to continue to grow our eco-corridor work. We also need to engage the community on the importance of managing and reporting pollution and helping them make the connection between clean stormwater drains and clean beaches.