Projects

Restoring the natural ecological sequences in the Pipiroa and Te Wahapu watersheds.

We'd love your help to make this project a success. Many types of tasks are available.
Please contact the project co-ordinator Vicky Froude 021 077 3378 if you can assist or want further information.

Project background

Project objectives:

To restore ecological naturalness to the full sequence of native terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the Pipiroa and Te Wahapu watersheds on the Russell Peninsula
To provide educational opportunities including interpretative panels along the Okiato-Russell walkway

To improve the resilience of the native ecosystems to invasions from invasive alien species, landslides, windthrows, rising sea levels and climate change
To reduce risks to the native ecosystems from fire, alien species, concentrated stormwater and other threats

The sequence of ecosystems we are protecting and restoring is: mature native forest through freshwater wetland to saltmarsh and mangrove forest to sand-shell barrier spits to coastal soft sediment waters. The project core is reserve and paper road administered by the Far North District Council. This includes Te Wahapu Scenic Reserve (66ha), esplanade reserve/paper road in Te Wahapu watershed, Pipiroa Scenic Reserve, Pipiroa Recreation Reserve and the Pipiroa access-way/ legal road. These areas total about 100ha. A management plan has been prepared and funding for many parts of the public lands project has been approved. This includes three years of funding for pest animal control. Living Waters is managing the overall project with support from the Far North District Council, Russell Landcare Trust and the Okiato-Te Wahapu Residents and Ratepayers Association. Russell Landcare Trust will take the lead on animal pest control. As the project progresses we hope to involve more organisations and individuals.

Some private lands are also part of the watershed project. This occurs with the agreement of the landowner in two ways and is still evolving:

The removal of key pest plant species that are likely to reinvade cleared public lands and/or invade ecologically high value public lands
Ecological restoration on some larger blocks of private land that have ecologically valuable ecosystems that form a key part of one or two of the ecological sequences in the project

We are also planning to establish a series of interpretation/ educative panels along the Okiato-Russell walkway. The timing for this will depend on funding. We have received funding from Far North District Council for various conservation works on the Council lands. We have been seeking additional funding for other conservation works, including resources for the education/ interpretation programme and panels.

Autumn/Winter 2016

During April and May 2016 a contractor will be felling weed trees (e.g. wattles, woolly nightshade, Taiwan cherry and tree privet) and removing key herbaceous/ vine weed species (e.g. pampas, banana passionfruit and Japanese honeysuckle) primarily from the Pipiroa access-way that forms the start of the Okiato-Russell walkway. Volunteers are removing ginger.

For safety reasons access to the Pipiroa entrance to the Pipiroa Scenic Reserve will be restricted for about one week as wattles overhanging or near the track are being felled. During this closure we will need to remove the chipable material and potential firewood off the track and to a suitable site for processing. We will notify people about the timing of this closure in advance via the Russell Community email. We will also notify local information centres. If you are able to help during this time (e.g. making sure people don’t use this section of the walkway, helping to remove cut material off the track) that would be very helpful. We will erect closure signs at each end of the affected section of the walkway, but we have found that some walkers ignore closure signs.

We will be planting cleared and other areas with 2000 native plants in May and June 2016. Our public planting days are Sunday 29 May and Saturday 18 June 2016. We will provide further information via the Russell community email and the Russell Landcare and Living Waters email lists. Please contact us if you would like to be involved.

To make planting easier and to improve our planting success we will be carefully manage the waste debris generated by removing the pest plants. Vines and ginger rhizomes will be taken to the Russell Landfill. Some herbaceous material will be composted on site. Smaller woody material will be chipped for mulch. The mulch will be used around plantings. Woody material with a diameter more than 60mm will be available for locals to chop into firewood and take away for their own use.