Te Hoiere Project protects Pelorus catchment

Te Hoiere Project is supporting the planting of native seedlings on 13 sites, totalling 7.2 hectares this planting season.

The Project involves Ngāti Kuia, Council, DOC and the wider community working together to protect catchments, improve water quality and restore biodiversity ki uta ki tai/from the mountains to the sea in Te Hoiere/Pelorus.

Te Hoiere/Pelorus is the largest river catchment which flows into the Marlborough Sounds. Restoration packages are tailored to each property and landowners’ ability to contribute labour, plants or materials.

Dairy farmers Mark and Simone Zillwood are Te Hoiere Project catchment leaders for Pelorus/Wakamarina, offering over-the-gate advice. This autumn they planted and protected 1,000 native seedlings, filling unproductive areas and gaps between existing streamside plantings.

“The Project is helping people who are short of time and money, enabling them to get things done more quickly than originally planned,” Mark said.

Glyn and Carol Jones of Ronga, near Rai Valley, added 600 seedlings to existing plantings along streams, on slopes and in corners “for erosion protection, silt retention and to bring the birdlife out of the bush.”

“Working with Te Hoiere Project has been a great experience,” Glyn said. “We are hearing more tūī and bellbirds.”

Te Hoiere Project is also supporting the Ngāti Kuia restoration of Ruapaka Wetland, near Canvastown. This year Diploma of Horticulture graduates trained by NMIT in partnership with iwi will plant 15,000 native seedlings where willows and other weeds once grew. The Ministry for the Environment is helping pay, along with Fonterra and DOC.

Marlborough Roads volunteered a stop-go crew, as machinery ground poisoned willows into mulch alongside SH6.

To access Te Hoiere Project support, landowners must agree to a catchment condition survey and sign an agreement.