Bridge to bridge project ends with staff planting day

A three-year community-led project to replant the riparian margins of the Waitoa River between the Puketutu and Station Road bridges near Matamata has been completed.

Landowners on either side of the river between the two bridges have upgraded 8 kilometres of fencing and, with funding and support from Waikato Regional Council (WRC) and Fonterra’s Sustainable Catchments programme, planted about 17,000 native plants and trees.

WRC Hauraki catchment team leader Aniwa Tawa says the project wrapped up with a final planting day involving staff from both Fonterra and WRC infill planting a further 200 trees and doing some weeding to release young plants put in the ground in previous years.

“The effort that has been put into this project by everyone has just been so awesome,” says Mrs Tawa. “All that is required to be done now is some ongoing maintenance by the landowners to keep the young plants free of weeds so they can flourish and grow to be big and strong.

The Bridge to Bridge project (B2B) was started in 2019 after some landowners approached the council and Fonterra for support to plant the riparian margin of the Waitoa River between the two bridges.

“We got all the landowners involved, and each had an Environment Programme Agreement with WRC that identified areas for restoration to help improve the mauri of the Waitoa River,” says Mrs Tawa.

“They really wanted to help improve the water quality of the river and restore the margins to create habitat for native birds and insects and even bats.”

The project included the removal of pest plants, relocating fencing from the river’s edge to create bigger riparian margins and the planting of native plants and trees.

“The planting has included taonga species such as kahikatea and totara which dominated the area in years past, so returning these to the land was a really important part of the project,” says Mrs Tawa.

Landowner John van Hueven says he’s thrilled with the work that has been done on his farm. 

“It’s fantastic seeing the previous year’s plantings coming up now; I can’t wait to see what it will look like in 10 or so years.”

WRC catchment management officer Amy Tsao says all the landowners were keen to jump on board with the project and were a pleasure to work with. 

“It’s so rewarding to see the progress that’s been made.”

Fonterra’s local government and stakeholder affairs manager Philippa Fourie says, “it’s always a good day when staff get to go out in the field and help landowners with planting”. 

The Fonterra staff were part of the Matamata-Piako Committee, which oversees Fonterra’s support to local community projects under its new Hapori programme.

“We’re proud of the commitment shown by the farmers involved in this project.

“Our Sustainable Catchments initiative is all about achieving sustainable water catchments where we operate, and we know that by working with others we can achieve more when it comes to protecting and regenerating waterways and biodiversity.”