By Nicholas Griffin, Mahaanui District Ranger
This story begins with a problem and a dream.
Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere is the fifth largest lake in Aotearoa with some of the greatest diversity of wading birds in the country. Unfortunately, based on a 2010 report, it is also the second most polluted.
It’s also significant in Canterbury as the largest area of public conservation land (3000 hectares) on the agriculturally dominated Canterbury Plains.
On the edge of the lake would have once stood an expansive kahikatea wetland forest, as well as raupo reeds and areas of tōtara forest in the dryer parts.
However, these native plants had been decimated, and invasive species had since taken root. Introduced weeds such as willows crowded out the native vegetation and formed dense forests that destroyed habitat for native birds, such as the endangered bittern/matuku-hurepo.
For years, work was done to combat the infestations of invasive plant species, but insufficient resources meant the outlook for the the remnant native plants looked bleak. Fortunately a Te Waihora Co-Governance Agreement was created in 2012, bringing together Ngāi Tahu, Environment Canterbury, Selwyn District Council, Christchurch City Council and DOC with the dream to “restore and rejuvenate the mana, mauri and ecosystem health of Te Waihora and its catchment”.
Initially, the Weed Strikeforce Project started in 2018 with the mission to eliminate grey willow and other high-priority weeds around the margin of Te Waihora. DOC led this mission with funding from Environment Canterbury, focused on removing weeds from both public and private land in the area.
The initial team comprised of a fencer and a comedian, followed by a baker. Thus, Weed Strike Force was born. Together, this motley crew worked tirelessly to push back the ocean of willow and other weeds that faced them, wherever we could find them.
Then Ministry of Primary Industries funded the planting of 100,000 native trees as part of the 1 Billion Trees Project. This project aligned perfectly and complemented the work already being undertaken by the Weed Strike Force. This funding allowed us to replace areas of large scale weed control with native plantings, and to get ahead of the game by planting out recently retired agricultural land.
Things looked to be going smoothly for a while, we were managing to eliminate large infestations of willows and add some resilience to weed invasion by reestablishing areas of wetland forest around the margin, with our plantings. Then came the year 2020, and like everyone else, not everything went to plan.
As the comedian often quipped, “our shovels aren’t long enough to reach the lake from home”. Our mahi was brought to a standstill. Our planting ceased and the weeds continued their unending march. However, as the saying goes, there is a light at the end of every tunnel, and our light was called Jobs for Nature.
After a successful application, the project was bestowed the name Kahuria Te Waihora from Te Taumutu Runanga. The name means “to dress Waihora”. Jobs for Nature allowed Weed Strike Force to not only continue, but to greatly expand our scope. Doubling our team’s size, adding another 250,000 trees over three years and allowing us to expand on the scope of our work around the lake, including extensive trap lines around the lake margin.
This is how we’ve operated for the last three years. Working away, removing willow, planting trees, and trapping animal pests around Te Waihora. Saying goodbye to a few friends, and then finding more. From the inception of this project, the work has been collaborative.
More people have helped in this project then I could possibly name. From the other DOC staff at Mahaanui helping with that pesky paperwork or team work days, local farmers, Te Ara Atawhai (a training programme created in partnership between DOC and the Ministry of Social Development), conservation groups, school plant out days and an extraordinary amount of volunteer hours. Not to mention our fabulous team at the Motukarara Nursery for all their support in providing ecologically sourced plants.
Now our project is in its twilight. So far 260,000 trees have been planted (on track for 350,000 by the projects end date) with 70 hectares of lake margin land planted in forest and around 700 hectares of weed control completed annually. Work has happened on a massive scale right around the lake margins and its tributaries, enabling indigenous forest corridors to begin linking up and adding further resilience to the whole Te Waihora ecology.
There is still work left to do, but with Jobs for Nature coming to an end, so is Kahuria Te Waihora. Hopefully, the legacy of this project will live on and maybe one day, the lake will return to its former glory as Te Kete Ika o Rākaihautū.
Watch Te Waihora on 1 News:
Mass planting underway around Canterbury lake’s neglected shoreline – 20/10/23
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It has been great to watch you carry on and expand the work and methods developed by the Waihora Ellesmere Trust and others from the noughties, and deliver on the co-management agreement between DoC and Ngai Tahu from the nineties. Yours is another step along the journey. I must pick you up though on your disparaging description of willows as weeds. The NZ Government sank a lot of money into developing willows (and poplars) for soil conservation work (and has been, perhaps, too successful). That the willow population around Lake Ellesmere has gone well beyond what it should have does not mean the species should be disparaged – it is a magnificent species that has done all that has ever been asked of it. It wan’t that long ago that many native species were considered weeds…
Are you referring to grey will Hamish? It is listed as one of the top environmental weeds (top 10 I think) nationally by the Dept of Conservation due to it’s tendency to spread quickly and widely and to crowd out almost all other native plants. It spreads by wind borne seed. If left unchecked it would eliminate all the freshwater vegetation on the edges of the Lake and the habitat for bittern and other native birds.
referring to willows as a species in general being disparaged. I do not recall which particular species were deliberately planted in the end, but there were willow species imported from all round the world to develop breeds that would thrive in NZ conditions – the work was largely done by MWD at its Aokautere research centre under the guidance of Chris van Krayenoord (sp?). What is considered fashionable or desirable changes over time and while we are now rightly focused on natives, we should not demonise a species that served us well and for which we had such responsibility in developing and helping adapt to NZ. Willows still provide important and sometimes significant habitat for native species and serve useful purposes for soil conservation. Ultimately humans are the worst damaging species (and we are encouraging growth in that particular pest) while demonising other species (possums, willows) simplify violates my sense of environmental justice. Its not their fault we now perceive them as weeds or pests.
You will leave an incredible legacy. The transformation of the areas you work at has been phenomenal. Let’s hope it can somehow continue