14,000+ native plants into the Motueka Catchment in 2024!
One of the key priorities for the Motueka Catchment Collective (MCC) is to enhance biodiversity in the catchment, and a key way to do this is through supporting residents and landowners to plant natives, particularly along riparian areas and near wetlands.
MCC, and in particular the Biodiversity and Restoration Group, has provided a whopping 14,000 plants to over 40 landowners in the catchment this year, along with supporting Motueka High School and MOTEC! This has included:
Number of plants
Where sourced from:
2500 – Dovedale Community Nursery
395 – Mytton Heights Community Nursery
1000 – Department of Conservation nursery
1500 – Tapawera propogation group
5,000 – Trees that Count
2,404 – Purchased by MCC from commercial nurseries
TOTAL: 14399
The plants were a mix of trees and shrubs including kanuka, tōtara, kahitkataea, toe toe, carex sector and harakeke.
The plants have been used by landowners in the catchment largely for riparian and wetland plantings. Eight of the landowners required plants as part of completing Farm Environment Plans for their property. MCC aims to support landowners wishing to do both smaller and larger plantings. Kate Radloff, Chair of the BAR group says:
“We want to support any residents and landowners wishing to plant natives on their land, whether this be a few plants alongside their stream, or a much larger environmental restoration project. Some people have been on their restoration journey for years and continue to need support for all the hard work they’re continuing to do. Others are just starting their planting efforts and need help getting going”.
2,644 plants went to five larger environmental projects requiring an average of over 400 plants per project. These projects included planting three existing wetlands, one for a newly constructed wetland, and one for planting along the riverbank. These projects will be multi year, and we hope to be able to support them in 2025.
This is a video showing drone footage of one of the wetland projects, still to be planted – courtesy of Craig Allen of Freshwater Environmental.
MCC hopes to continue supporting landowners and residents to carry on their planting efforts in 2025. Here are some of the seedlings that will be growing bigger by next winter!
