Wai Not Go Green?

 Click on one of the projects below to find out more

  Climate Camp Aotearoa

What the Group is Trying to Achieve
Currently, the Makoura Stream is one of the most polluted in the Wellington region. This may not be surprising as it runs through the Wairarapa's biggest urban area and has to deal with a host of environmental pressures. Yet its urban path is what makes the Makoura so important.The restoration group shares the commitment to create a beautiful waterway flowing through the heart of Masterton that reflects the community's desire for a sustainable harmony between people and nature.
From its beginning west of Ngaumutawa Road,to where it flows into the Ruamahanga River at Homebush,and every where in between, we couldrestore the Makoura to:

• a stream with excellent water quality
• a stream overhung with native trees
• a stream supporting endangered native fish and eels, and native water plants

The Challenge of Restoring the Makoura

The Makoura Stream has been affected by all the uses of the land on its banks. It borders residential properties, five schools, sports grounds, b sinesses and industry, small and large farm blocks, and the Masterton sewage scheme, before reaching the Ruamahanga River. It is an important part of Masterton's storm water system and provides water to the
Memorial Park.

The group believes it can improve the health of the stream by removing rubbish, controlling weeds and planting the banks in native plants.Removing rubbish and controlling weeds will have obvious immediate benefits of making the stream and its surrounds more pleasant and easier to work in. Once the plantings are established they will improve the water quality by preventing sediments and nutrients from running into the stream, providing cover for native fish, helping to suppress future weed growth and providing a corridor to attract native birds into the gardens of Masterton.

What the Group has been Doing

• Held an initial hui to gauge interest in April 2008
• Successfully securing funding for future works from Greater Wellington, Masterton District Council and Ministry for the Environment - $45,000
• Tree planting at the Ngaumutawa Road end of the stream - June 2008
• Replaced trees that were stolen from the June planting - August 2008
• Planning the successful restoration of the stream

The Detail of Restoring the Makoura

Restoring close to 30 kilometres of waterway made up of urban stream, open drain, covered drain and rural stream is going to be complicated. It will need o be tackled in a co-ordinated way and from many angles to be successful. To that end the group has organised itself into the following teams to achieve everything

• Strategic planning: developing a stream restoration plan and timeline for the work
• Communications: keeping all interested people informed and liaising with media
• Baseline assessment:walking the stream and recording what state it is in at the start, so we have something to measure improvements against. This team includes stream advocates - people who want to take responsibility for looking after a section of the stream.
• Research: working to find the most successful and efficient techniques for improving the health of the Makoura
• Operations: rubbish removal, planting, weeding and all the other jobs to restore and maintain a healthy stream. This team will also include stream advocates.

The Makoura Stream Needs Your Skills!

Makoura Stream needs people with the following skills:
Caretaking and organising?
To tend a stretch of the stream
Secretarial?
To provide administration support to the project
Communicating?
To keep the Makoura Stream community informed of all our works  
Managerial?
To run efficient meetings and get the most out of our passionate members

The time to use your talents is now!
If you want to join the organising group or just be involved, contact Jim Flack

06 370 5642
jim.flack@gw.govt.nz  

This Sustainable Wairarapa sponsored project is trialling a species of eucalypt that have a potential natural durability in the ground, as posts, of over 25 years. This trial has come about through the deliberations of a group of residents trying to find solutions for improving our effluent treatment system. The goal is to reduce and eventually completely eliminate the need to pump treated human waste-water into our rivers. 

So what is so great about the potential for these trees? Well......there are a number of exciting environmental opportunities to be gained from posts, poles and other products made from these eucalypts: 

1. They could avoid the need for toxic preservative treatments for posts and poles and the potential leaching of toxins into the soils and groundwater
2. They could vastly reduce the number of posts that are broken every year in vineyards (about 30 per ha on average) and the problem of disposing of them (burning is not an option for obvious reasons) 
3. They could improve community health and reducing health costs by developing a high quality fuelwood resource. Eucalypt biomass (arisings from the post operation) have potential in the manufacture of fuelwood pellets or as a community firewood venture.
4. They could generate revenue from carbon credits. As a generalisation, trees in a coppice system probably sequester about 15 tonnes of carbon /Ha / year. The trial will determine whether high stockings of fast-grown, high density timber being used in carbon-neutral situations can generate even more revenue over and above sales from harvesting.
5. If the plantations were to be irrigated with treated effluent water (eg from the Homebush treatment plant), not only are growth rates increased, but you get a double-whammy environmental benefit through trees taking up nutrients that would otherwise leach into our groundwater or rivers.

The Wairarapa community has a suprising wealth of talent within it encompassing many different disciplines. People involved in setting up, managing, measuring and analysing this trial include leading scientists and agronomists, agroforester and forestry consultants, all of whom have offered their services voluntarily - at no cost!!!

Get involved in this project and be a little part of Masterton history in the making! 

Contact Don Bell (On behalf of Trial Sponsors Sustainable Wairarapa Inc)
Email don.bell@gw.govt.nz  

Congratulations to the folks at the Wairarapa Green Dollar Exchange on the launch of the first official WAIS dollars. To find out more about the exchange and the launch read this dom post article.

Check out the new $WAI website at www.waisorg.nz