THE MUDLARKS
When Scobie retired in 2005, he and wife Janice relocated to a house overlooking the Waiuku Estuary. The estuary was so full of mangroves that no water was visible, which got Scobie thinking. He eventually came up with the idea of building a 11m barge from which they could remove the mangroves.
After numerous approaches to the local council which initially rejected the idea, eventually they got permission to remove nine hectares of mangroves from the harbour’s edge.
Scobie and a few friends built the barge from 21mm tanalised plywood and timber with considerable help from the late Terry Ryan. After launching in 2009, what became the Waiuku Estuary Restoration Trust developed their mangrove removal procedures.
The volunteers, who called themselves Mudlarks, cut the mangroves on foot at low tide with chainsaws and scrub cutters, then tied the mangroves into bundles which they stack in rows wide enough to take the barge.
At high water the barge motored in and anchored with steel pipes driven into the mud. At the next daylight low tide, the mangrove bundles were lifted onto the deck with motorised davits. At the following high tide, the barge motored to the Waiuku wharf where the mangroves were removed and immediately mulched on site. Local gardeners make a donation in return for the mulch.
It’s become a hugely successful project. “We’ve found once the mangroves are removed, the birds and fish return and the whole area gets flushed out and cleaned.”
There are about 20 active Mudlarks and typically a team of six to seven will work three morning per week. Scobie estimates they take out about 100 tons of mangrove per ha. The Mudlarks low-cost process has cleared 35ha of mangroves to date, which has only cost the local council $25,000 in direct costs. By way of comparison, another council, which shall remain nameless, using professionals with diggers to remove mangroves, paid out over $1,200,000 to clear 20ha.
While there are those who decry clearing mangroves, they forget mangroves are an introduced species. Photos from the 1950s show the Waiuku area completely clear of mangroves.
Go the Mudlarks.