Call for volunteers for riparian planting day on Monday, 23 May

Published on 18 May 2022

Volunteers are being called for a community riparian planting day at the Castlecliff Domain on Monday, 23 May 2022, starting at 9.30am. The planting area is known to Castlecliff locals as Port Bowen Reserve, and is located at the end of Seafront Road below Karaka Street.

The plantings are part of the Healthy Streams initiative, a community project led by Whanganui District Council in collaboration with iwi, Horizons Regional Council, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry for the Environment, charitable trusts including the Whanganui River Enhancement Trust, commercial businesses and landowners.

Whanganui District Council’s senior stormwater engineer, Kritzo Venter, says, “The Healthy Streams initiative is targeted at improving the water quality of stormwater run-off and natural watercourses by planting with native plants.

“The plantings at the Port Bowen Reserve will include trees, shrubs and grasses, which have a meaningful carbon sequestration value especially within the context of changing land use to riparian waterfront and wetlands.”

Horizons Regional Council’s Whanganui freshwater co-ordinator, Scotty Moore, says, “It’s great to be working so closely with Whanganui District Council’s Infrastructure team to improve water quality and native fish habitat in our urban waterways. We’ve also had incredible support from Tangata Whenua and the community, and hope to see many more stream restoration projects completed over the coming years.

“The Port Bowen Reserve is at the head of the Waiwherowhero watercourse, which is important habitat for threatened native fish such as banded kōkopu. Overall, the Healthy Streams initiative is anticipating more than 7000 native plants will be planted along Whanganui urban streams this winter with funding from the Ministry for the Environment’s Mahi mō te Taiao / Jobs for Nature programme,” Scotty Moore says.

Kritzo Venter says, “The purpose of the Healthy Streams initiative is to enhance and expand Whanganui’s natural habitat, with the added benefit of aligning with our district’s aspirations to reduce our overall carbon emissions.

“The initiative has made great progress thanks to the work of Horizons and our community partners. The support from the wider Whanganui community for our planting day events has also been outstanding.”

All community volunteers are welcome to attend the Port Bowen Reserve planting day on Monday, 23 May, and refreshments will be provided. For more information about the Healthy Streams initiative, please click here. 

IMAGE: A previous Healthy Streams planting day near the Karoro watercourse