Hi everyone

This update is to inform you of progress towards preparing the Haukaretu stream area for restorative planting out in native species.

The Wellington Regional  Council have been busy with machinery clearing out the pest-willow trees to reveal a very attractive area which will soon be ready to plant out.

We hope to have the first planting day within a few weeks. As soon as that date is finalized, we will let you know. Forest and Bird Upper Hutt are our advisors and hands-on supporters on all things botanical, and it’s great to be working alongside them. Please see below for the latest news on our partnership planting and weeding on other Forest and Bird projects in and around Upper Hutt.

We have also had the first eDNA study completed and the results are to hand. They show a wide variety of lifeforms, most of them alien to ordinary folk, but nevertheless fascinating that there is such abundance and variety, and it is a sobering reminder of the damage inflicted when we are careless with discharges into drains, streams, rivers and the sea. 

The report details 1157 lifeforms in our project area, including Amoebae, Bacteria, Birds, Bryozoans, Ciliates,  Cnidarians, Crustaceans, Cryptomonads, Diatoms, Dinoflagellates, Fish, Flatworms, Fungi, Green algae, Heterokont algae, Insects, Liverworts, Mammals, Mites and ticks, Molluscs, Mosses, Oomycetes, Plants, Red algae, Ribbon worms, Rotifers, Roundworms, Spiders, Springtails, Worms and a vast list of varieties categorized as “Others”.

A user-friendly version of the report can be viewed on line by clicking here, and a guide to understanding it is available here

Thanks for the generous support of Mountains to Sea (Wellington) for providing this ongoing environmental monitoring. When our project is planted out and established, there will be a repeat eDNA analysis to compare the environmental health of the area before and after our intervention.

Stewart

Update from Forest and Bird:

Pomarie all Forest and Bird helpers.
While we have been waiting for the rain to stop, the weeds have kept growing and the plants need help to out grow them. We call this releasing.

We plan to have two  releasing sessions before the end of February.

1. Where: Twin Lakes opposite the pumping station – see flag and picture.
   When: Thursday 26th February, 5 – 7pm There will be a picnic tea afterwards. We will provide this.
   What: releasing last winters plantings. The grass is over knee height and although we used cardboard protectors they are hardly visible. It would be good to use some longer stakes to mark contiguous planted lines but the ground may be too hard.

2.  Where: Hulls Creek Hutt River trail Silverstream
When: Friday 27th February, 9:30 – 12:00 (at the latest)
What: Releasing previous plantings and working the block north of the new bridge that we haven’t been able to access during bridge construction.

Parking: Meet in the car park just south of the railway bridge.

We have volunteers coming from EPA, Environmental Protection Authority.

Morning tea is provided. It’s a great opportunity to meet a new bunch of people who do very important and interesting work for NZ.

We team up our helpers with theirs to support them. Not all weeds are obvious. How good are you at finding OMB?

We do have some spare tools, but if you have your own pair of garden shears (hedge clippers) or something similar, and a pair of gloves too, then please bring those with you. You’ll mostly be under the canopy.

If you are a new-comer, please text Lynne on 021 66 00 76 beforehand with any questions you may have

Monthly meetings 2026.
Note – NEW VENUE, NEW VENUE

Where: Heretaunga Community Church, 51 Lane Street, Upper Hutt
When: Tuesday 24th February, start 7:30pm,

Entrance through the small door at the north end of building.

A presentation by Sarah Goldberg and Simon Kennett about restoration planting at Mākara Peak over the last 27 years, plus results from Sarah’s seed research (both of which focus on reintroducing Podocarp species) and how both are informing the next phase of restoration using aerial seed dispersal to reintroduce missing species into the hard-to-reach areas of the park.

Thanks for your support

The Nursery team

A “thank you” to Haukaretu Stream Restoration Project for sending this article to The Upper Hutt Connection.

18/02/26