Restoring Ngāpeke wetlands with native plants and community power

The Ngāpeke 7 landblock is a 42acre māori landblock situated in Tauranga Moana and is the base of our operations. More than half the block is a repo (wetland) and the Waitao river runs along the edge of the wetland. Ninty five percent (95%) of vegetation in the repo in 2019 were common noxious weeds including pampus, woolly nightshade, privet and willow. A monocrop of maize was commercialy grown there aswell. The rest of the property which was pasture was also in maize at that time. This area now consists mainly of māra kai including a food-forest and also houses 2 nurseries - one probagating native plant species and the other for vegetable probagation to support māra kai on the property and in the wider community. We have a network of volunteers who come regularly to help out in all of these spaces.

Apart from restoring wetland and dryland on the Ngāpeke 7 property, we also assist neighbouring landowners to do the same. We can often spend anywhere from a full day and up to three days planting in these areas with kaimahi and volunteers. To make the process of digging holes more efficiant (in time and energy) we would like to purchase a battery powered auger to assit with this project and others in the future. Since we are in places that are far from a power source, we would also like to purchase a mobile solar powered charging station for the auger batteries.

We are extending restoration efforts to clear out yet another very weedy area of the repo including a gully, in preparation for winter planting in 2027. However, it is going to take hefty mechanical means to achieve this. So, the plan is to hire an excavator-mulcher to clear weed trees, shrubs, vines etc from the entire area. Aproximately 3000 plants will be probagated and grown on in our nursery to be planted in this area.