Project Description:

Update:

Our fundraising goal has changed. We are now fundraising $15,000 which means we nearly at our new target!

A COMMUNITY EFFORT

We are Whitebait Connection. We connect communities to take positive actions for the living treasures in their waterways. This is one of those projects and is a collaborative community planting project which started in the Waitaua sub-catchment of the Whangārei Harbour in 2005.

The Waitaua Awa/River is one of two main streams that flow into Whangārei Falls, a very popular swimming spot and tourist destination.

To date, we have planted over 60,000 native plants with over 20,000 volunteers along the Waitaua Awa/River and restored 5 kilometres of riparian habitat!

80% of these plants have been grown by volunteers at the He Kākano Community Plant Nursery.

OUR PROJECT

Next year, our aim is to open this project up to the wider Whangārei catchment to help to address the catchment wide issues of erosion, habitat and biodiversity loss and excess nutrient loads. We want to create restored waterways from the mountains to the sea and healthy resilient communities and environments!

We aim to plant 15,000 native plants and trees at different sites in Whangārei catchment. We haven’t identified the specific sites yet, but we anticipate that planting will occur along the Waitaua Awa, Otaika Creek and the Hatea River that flows into the Whangārei Harbour.

Some of the plantings will be on council reserve land and others will be on private land.

Our aim is to have as wide a margin as possible! We estimate that we will plant the 15,000 native plants along 2000 metres of streamside.

YOUR SUPPORT

We haven’t secured funding support for the running costs of our He Kākano Community Plant Nursery for 2019.

We need your support to cover our community nursery running costs for 2019 so that we can grow 15,000 native plants with community volunteers! That way, they will be all ready to plant out alongside waterways in the Whangārei Harbour catchment next winter (2019).

The plants will be planted using a mix of community and school planting days.

We will secure funding from other sources to cover the costs of the planting days and ongoing maintenance of the plantings alongside school and community education programmes.

We’re raising funds to support Whangārei. Love it Here!