Why NIWA would love to know about your riparian plantings

A new research programme is gathering information on as many fenced or planted riparian buffers as possible from across New Zealand. The researchers will select about 50 of these buffers that differ in size, age, location etc, and monitor a range of water quality and stream life indicators for a year. Where possible, they will train local people as ‘citizen scientists’ to collect the samples and data using a Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit (SHMAK).

If you have fenced or planted stream banks on your property, or know of a riparian buffer, please let us know by entering the details on our website http://riparian.niwa.co.nz

This will help us to better understand the processes of ecological recovery in restored streams and make future riparian restoration efforts more effective.