Wānaka Water Project

In 2018 we partnered with WAI Wānaka to lead and commence riparian planting for the Wānaka Water project which was funded by the Ministry for the Environment’s Freshwater Improvement Fund (FIF).

Our involvement meant we  planted 24,000 native plants over the five year life of this project and we ran this alongside our community plantings which remained our core focus.

We continued to use plants eco-sourced from within this region to ensure our work supports the biodiversity of the region. Local nurseries, Matukituki Natives and Pukerau supplied plants where we could not meet the demand.

Wanaka Water Project
Volunteer Planting

We developed site selection criteria to determine the suitability of potential locations against the prime objective of water quality improvement, and an MOU between parties for selected sites. Such sites included those administered by our traditional partners, QLDC and DOC, as well as some stream sides and wetlands on private land that feed into the rivers or lakes.

Te Kākano staff and volunteers propagated plants of suitable species at our community nursery, and organised the planting and initial maintenance of public sites. Where a site was on private land, we used contractors to do the planting.

We believe that delivering the Wānaka Water Project helped us further enhance our ability to improve the biodiversity of the area through connecting people with the land.