Progress Despite Problematic Planting Season

The start of spring, usually an ideal time for planting, saw the banks of Waikato waterways completely inundated with high water levels following the wettest winter since records began with a year’s rain falling in nine months.

This was hugely disappointing for our eager volunteers from NZI, Spark, Watercare Services, Ohinewai School, Kimihia Primary School, Huntly College and Place Group, who were geared up for a planting day at Lake Ohinewai but saw the day, then back up day, come and go with no stretches of fine weather anywhere on the horizon!

Water, water, everywhere!

Finally, there was a brief break in the weather, and we were able to get the plants down to the planting site at Lake Ohinewai. On Thursday 5 October, at very short notice and during the school holidays, representatives from Million Metres (part of the Sustainable Business Network), NZI, and Spark made it out for a successful planting day that saw about 3,000 plants planted with the support of the fantastic crew from Te Whangai Trust. In recent weeks, planting projects have also been completed on the south bank of Lake Ohinewai. What a relief!

Huge thanks to everyone who was able to support us in this work, especially Waikato Catchment Ecological Enhancement Trust (WCEET) for their generous funding of our restoration project at Lake Ohinewai, and WEL Energy Trust for their contribution towards the volunteer planting day.