Planting empowers potential for Porirua waterway

Students from Natone, Porirua and Windley schools got digging this week, planting over 600 trees at Bothamley Park thanks to a collaboration between Greater Wellington Regional Council, Sustainable Coastlines and Porirua City Council.

Greater Wellington Biodiversity Officer Micheline Evans says the planting at Bothamley Park happens each year as part of the Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour Collaborative Project.

"There are a lot of opportunities to plant along this stream and it is great for the kids to be able to plant in their own neighbourhood.

"The stream is an important whitebait spawning area so we also want to provide cover and shade habitat for them," Micheline says.

She says it is great to give children the chance to recognise how special their environment is and to show them it is worth looking after.

"Aside from all the obvious environmental benefits planting offers, it also gives great educational benefits to the children as well as contributing to good mental and physical health.

"Children are often powerful agents of change and encourage us all to do better,” Micheline says.

Oliver Vetter of Sustainable Coastlines says this organisation enables others to get outdoors and care for their environment - "a mission we share with Greater Wellington".

Sustainable Coastlines is currently in the midst of their ANZ Love Your Water winter tour - traveling around Aotearoa New Zealand running riparian tree planting events.

"As part of this tour we collaborated with Greater Wellington and local schools to plant over 600 native trees and grasses along the waterway at Bothamley Park.

"The students from these local schools, which all reside in the watershed, worked hard to plant the riverside and help restore the potential of this beautiful waterway," Oliver says.

So far this winter Sustainable Coastlines has activated a total of 1727 people to plant 34,300 native trees/shrubs and educated 1177 people with their inspirational presentations. 

"Huge thanks to Porirua City Council and Greater Wellington for the opportunity to collaborate on another fantastic and educational event for students around Porirua," Oliver says.