Boggy pasture transformed at Wairio
It’s been 14 years since members of a wetlands conservation group stood in front of some bare paddocks with poor pasture and little prospects near the shores of Lake Wairarapa.
Today that land is 132 hectares of thriving wetland, home to endangered bird species as well as numerous common waterfowl and waders.
After years of planting, shaping and spraying the restoration of Wairio Wetland is now a shining light of what can be done to restore health to a damaged ecology.
Driven by conservation group Ducks Unlimited New Zealand, which specialises in promoting habitats for waterfowl, the wetland was established on Department of Conservation land and developed with support from the regional council.
Ducks Unlimited president Ross Cottle said it had been a long road since the group started work on the project 14 years ago, but it was gratifying to see the flourishing ecosystem it had created.
‘‘We have a huge variety of birds down here now. There’s a lot of ducks and a lot of black swans, but in recent times we’ve also had a lot of pied stilts and a huge number of royal spoonbills, which have not been seen in this area for 30 years.’’
Ducks Unlimited, along with the regional council, has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in planting trees, building bund walls and on weed control.
The Lower Wairarapa Valley Development Scheme, operational during the 1960 and 1970s, was designed to control flooding and create more farmland but it had a devastating effect on the wetland ecology of the region.
Large areas bordering Lake Wairarapa were drained and cleared, and the 132ha area was reduced to boggy pasture.
‘‘[Wairio Wetland] is a leader in this region and we have created a template of how you can build a wetland,’’ Cottle said.