Growing the green belt

As thousands more native trees and shrubs are planted again this winter a green belt around Ōhiwa Harbour is becoming a growing reality. Ongoing control of rodents and invasive plants is an important part of this work. This post describes some of the recent, amazing work of the Ōhiwa Harbour community, especially the continuous efforts of the many care groups.

The Nukuhou Saltmarsh Care Group, led by Stuart and Margaret Slade, has been busy as usual, along the Nukuhou saltmarsh in Wainui, Uretara Island and in the Waiotane Kiwi Reserve. Thanks to Stuart’s meticulous record keeping we know that in the year to April 2026 91 volunteer hours were spent just on planting among the group’s many activities. This mainly involved transplanting native seedlings to sites where they can grow and seedlings planted to replace the Manuka being attacked by borer and collapsing. Native seedlings funded by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Jim Robinson were also planted at three revegetation sites on Uretara Island.

Margaret Slade from the Nukuhou Saltmarsh Care Group at the Hiwarau wetland planting bee. Image: Tim Senior

In mid-June the Hiwarau Wetland Restoration & Inanga Spawning Area Project received another boost of about 700 plants. The project site is below Hiwarau where the Nukuhou forms an oxbow, not far from the Cheddar Valley pottery in Wainui. The collaborative project of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Hiwarau C Trustees and adjacent landowners was started last year to restore a wetland in the Nukuhou River tidal area. Driving past one can just imagine how it will look, when the seedlings, now highlighted by pink tape, will have grown into mature trees in some years’ time.

The Rotary Club of Whakatāne with assistance from the Interact Club will be holding a tree planting day in August along the Ōhiwa Harbourside trail with 200 plants provided by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Staff from Whakatāne District Council are preparing the planting area, located about 100 meters into the walkway from Otao Reserve. The trail has been affected by a number of trees down by the high tide coming into the area occasionally. The District Council will get the team in to remove them at some stage in the future.

Yet more trees went into the ground on the Ōhiwa Headland (see ‘Forever protected’ post here), in the Ōhiwa domain and at Reeves Road extension on the eastern side of the harbour. In the Ōhiwa domain, the area in bush walking up to Onekawa Te Mawhai Regional Park from Ōhiwa Harbour Road, gorse and blackberry has been sprayed and cabbage trees and other natives planted instead.

For many years, the Hurike Care Group has been restoring the margins of a harbour margin wetland on Reeves Road. This group too got together in late July to enhance the area further with several hundred of trees.

Vegetation plots on Uretara Island compared, 2017 to 2026. Image: Stuart Slade

Throughout the year the care groups at the harbour have spent countless hours catching predators such as possums, rats, and mice; maintaining tracks and, sadly, also collecting rubbish. The results of all this work are coming to light through bird monitoring, another one of the care groups’ activities. At the Nukuhou Saltmarsh bird monitoring is carried out monthly, using fernbird as an indicative species. Numbers, not only of fernbird, are generally increasing. As the Ōhiwa community works hard to establish more habitat once rarely seen species can now be heard, or even spotted, more frequently.

If you like to join one of the care groups at Ōhiwa Harbour, check out the nearest one to you here.