Great turnout for huge clean-up
by Gisborne Herald Staff Reporters
Wednesday, 21 March, 2007
A beautiful March day gave 50 keen people the ideal accompaniment to their clean-up of Te Wherowhero and Brown’s beaches, 20 kilometres south of the city.
With a theme of "One ocean – it starts here – Kotahi moana – kei konei te timatatanga", Seaweek 2007 reinforced the "think globally, act locally" message by focusing on the way that land-based activity affects the sea.
Organisers from the Department of Conservation, Ngai Tamanuhiri Whanui Trust and Friends of Te Wherowhero were delighted with the turnout, and the result.
Two large rubbish skips were packed to overflowing as people scoured the dunes and estuary shoreline, clearing waste from the area.
DoC area manager Andy Bassett said he was amazed to see how much was collected in a relatively short time.
"The sheer volume of waste in the area is quite mind-boggling, and it was easy to see how this stuff affects the water conditions around here just by looking at how much was found around the edge of the estuary. The really exciting part of the day was seeing so many people prepared to come out and clear up the rubbish,"
The teams of keen workers took a barbecue break in the middle of the day to listen to talks about Te Wherowhero.
Kuia, Nanny Kui of Ngai Tamanuhiri, spoke of the waka Horouta that landed at Muriwai at the base of Te Kuri a Paoa, now known as Young Nick’s Head.
DoC programme manager Jamie Quirk acknowledged the work of volunteers who have built a record of birdlife at Te Wherowhero with years of monitoring. In particular, Morris Bramwell who died in 2006, created a valuable database of New Zealand dotterel observations, and passed on his skills to volunteers, Ray and Kerry Parsons.
As ground-nesting birds, dotterels are particularly vulnerable to attack by predators, being disturbed by vehicles and dogs and having their nests destroyed by storms.
There are estimated to be fewer than 1600 dotterels left in the world and they are endemic to New Zealand. When monitoring began in 1990, there were four dotterels at Te Wherowhero. In 2007, 42 dotterels were recorded at the site.
As the largest wetland in Poverty Bay, the estuary provides essential habitat for local and migratory birds.
There have been 26 different species of birds observed at Te Wherowhero, including bar-tailed godwits that migrate from Siberia, NZ wrybills from Central Otago and royal spoonbills.
Ngai Tamanuhiri Whanui Trust CEO Dawn Pomana described how local iwi had started to consider how best to care for their traditional areas in a way that would benefit future generations, in 1998.
Concern at the sale of Nick’s Head Station to an overseas investor was later resolved by iwi working closely on ecosystem restoration with new landowner John Griffin.
Plantings of donated flax had taken place and work with the many landowners in the area had been a high priority. The trust had a vision of revegetating the coastline and providing a walkway for the full length of Oneroa from Te Kuri a Paoa to Gisborne.
Steve Sawyer of Ecoworks spoke of working with trust members on ecological restoration on Nick’s Head Station and in the surrounding area.
Ecoworks had been employed by Mr Griffin to restore biodiversity in the area to the state it was in before the land was cleared, he said.
Work to date funded by Mr Griffin has included the construction of a predator-proof fence, planting 42,000 native trees, pest eradication and high-tech measures to lure seabirds back to the area.
Rock concert-style speakers have been set up to broadcast birdcalls to attract grey-faced petrels and fluttering shearwaters.
Weta Workshop has produced decoy gannets to be placed in protected areas and lure live birds to re-colonise the area. Geckos, skinks and a range of insects are being re-introduced to the fenced enclosure and the hope is to eventually return tuatara to the area.
Andy Bassett acknowledged the contribution of all the landowners in the area, who have always allowed beach access through their properties.
"There is so much good work happening here — it is such a shame that the first thing we have to do is clean up the rubbish left by other people.
"It was wonderful to have so many people out prepared to clean this special area. Our hope is that some day in the future, there will be no need for this sort of activity and we can focus on more interesting and productive work like tree planting and species re-introductions."
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