Jobs for Nature Funding
Katikati based Project Parore is now able to put people, as well as ideas to work for the benefit of its ecological restoration projects in the catchments of the Northern Tauranga Harbour, thanks to new funding.
The $5 million of funding, which is stretched over the next five years, includes a recent $1,748,000 grant from the Ministry for the Environment’s Jobs for Nature fund.
“This means we can employ a project manager, a team leader and two restoration crew members full time. Until now we have relied solely on wonderful teams of volunteers and landowners to do much of our work,” says Lawrie Donald of Project Parore.
Financial support has also come from Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Bay Trust, TECT, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Katikati Taiao and the Department of Conservation.
“We are extremely grateful for the funding we have received, which makes it possible for us to help our community implement environmental programmes,” says Lawrie who has been instrumental in preparing the organisation’s successful funding applications.
Project Parore’s mission stretches across eight adjoining catchments: Aongatete, Waitekohe, Te Mania, Te Rereatukahia, Uretara, Tahawai, Tuapiro and Waiau, all of which flow from the Kaimai range into the northern tidal zone of the Tauranga Harbour.
David Peters, the newly elected chair of Project Parore’s governance board says because of health and safety requirements, the work of community volunteers is often restricted to planting trees. “We are incredibly grateful to our volunteers and landowners and absolutely want them to remain involved. Once we employ staff trained to operate powered equipment and use chemicals, working five days a week on all terrain, we can more quickly make a difference at scale and help our vision come to life.”
That vision includes not only enhancing water quality and biodiversity but also creating wildlife corridors from the hills to the harbour by controlling pests, protecting native vegetation and carrying out restoration of coastal areas.
Entomologist Peter Maddison, patron and scientific advisor to Project Parore, says work to stop soil and nutrients from entering waterways in the first place, swales to slow down water movements and the planting of a succession of plants to stop sediment getting into the harbour is vital.
“We will be growing native plants especially for these restoration projects at our nursery. We will not compete with commercial nurseries but grow the more unusual, endangered and hard to propagate species.”
One of the first projects the new staff will be involved in is pest and weed control and the formation of walking tracks in the Waitekohekohe Reserve (previously Lund Road Reserve) which is a mix of native bush and pine forest located between Lund Road and Thompsons Track and includes the Waitekohe Stream.
Lawrie says the team will also be available to assist landowners to carry out restoration projects on private land.
Peter says another pleasing development is working closely with local hapū.“We want to meld their goals and ideas with ours so together we can bring the once abundant native fish parore back to the Tauranga Harbour by improving land management practices and protecting waterways from further degradation.”
Project Parore appoints patrons
Public transport for fish!
A project involving landowners, including pastoral farmers and orchardists, which could result in both an abundance of whitebait for locals and recovery of fish numbers is planned for waterways in the Northern Tauranga Harbour region.
Lawrie Donald, Chair of UEM and Project Parore member says the proposal is to remove migration barriers to indigenous fish species in all the streams in the area.
This follows successful work carried out last year on the Te Mania, Te Rereatukahia, Uretara and Tahawai streams.
“The biggest threat to our indigenous fish species is not from the whitebait fishers, but from man-made barriers which prevent them migrating up stream. The objective of this new proposal is to extend the project to include all the streams that enter the Tauranga Harbour north of the Matahui Peninsula.”
The proposal is for a joint project between the community, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Department of Conservation, UEM & Project Parore.
“Last year the Uretara Estuary Managers, as part of its “Hills to Ocean” project, requested the regional council carry out a study of fish migration in the four streams which discharge into the estuary near Katikati.”
Lawrie says following that study a contractor carried out remediation work on 43 impediments in the four streams, with almost immediate results.
“In one case, mussel ropes were installed at a ford which appeared to be a complete barrier to migratory fish. The work was finished by 3pm. After dark at about 8pm we inspected the ropes to find fish already climbing up and heading upstream. It was a great, instantaneous success.”
Often called “fish ladders”, the systems installed to enable fish to navigate man-made barriers are designed around the particular obstacle and may include ropes from mussel farms, ramps or baffles. The idea is to enable the tiny fish to “climb” or swim around a barrier and then rest in quiet water before making the next dash up stream.
Whitebait are the juveniles of six species of fish. Five of these are migratory galaxiids: inanga, banded kōkopu, giant kōkopu, kōaro and shortjaw kōkopu. The sixth species is common smelt.
Inanga begin life as eggs laid in vegetation beside streams in late summer and autumn. When the eggs hatch, they are carried downstream as larvae and spend the next six months at sea. In the spring they migrate upstream as whitebait and grow into adult fish.
That’s why, says Lawrie, removing barriers to their upstream migration, and ensuring there is habitat for them when they get there, is vital to restoring viable population numbers. “Helping more white bait migrate up stream also helps another stream inhabitant – the fresh water mussel or kakahi, which uses fish to transport larvae upstream.”
When male kakahi release sperm into the water in summer, females inhale this, and the fertilised larvae (glochidia) are ejected. Using long sensory filaments, the larvae latch on to the gills and fins of fish, usually the koaro, which take them upstream, where they drop off to bury into the sediment. At that stage they are less than 0.5mm but over a 50-year time span, can reach 10cm long. Lawrie says the objective of the project is to ensure that any migrating fish (whitebait) that enters through the Bowentown entrance can reach any stream and find a home.
“There is a need to educate landowners, the community about what a barrier to native fish looks like. Training will also be made available to contractors who may be installing stream crossings for subdivision purposes. Advice and demonstrations to this group will hopefully avoid future barriers being constructed within streams in the local area.”
Clockwise from top left: Scoping out a big culvert to provide access upstream for whitebait. A rope fish ladder in place in a culvert to enable the tiny fish to “climb” or swim through the culvert, upstream to breed. Within hours of these fish ladders being installed on a ford, fish were seen climbing up and heading upstream, over what had previously been a barrier to their migration. Fish ladders are designed to suit each obstacle and may include ropes, ramps and baffles.
