The Whau River Project was set up by the Whau River Catchment Trust http://www.whauriver.org.nz/ to record the special fauna, flora and fungi observed within the Whau River catchment.
A century of urbanisation and industrialisation has resulted in severely degraded environments and significant loss of native ...more ↓
The Whau River Project was set up by the Whau River Catchment Trust http://www.whauriver.org.nz/ to record the special fauna, flora and fungi observed within the Whau River catchment.
A century of urbanisation and industrialisation has resulted in severely degraded environments and significant loss of native biodiversity. However the Whau catchment still retains many remnants of indigenous vegetation in a range of freshwater, marine, intertidal and coastal, lowland, riparian and urban, forest and garden habitats. Such habitats provide a refuge for biota that are especially precious in such close proximity to New Zealand’s biggest city.
These habitats are particularly vulnerable in an environment heavily modified by people and introduced species. Since the year 2000, the Whau River Catchment Trust (formerly Friends of the Whau) has been harnessing the passion and energy of volunteers to help protect and restore biodiversity throughout the catchment.
The Whau River Project on NatureWatchNZ is part of our wider Te Whau Citizen Science environmental and biodiversity monitoring programme http://www.whauriver.org.nz/te-whau-citizen-science-programme Citizen Science provides new levels of collaboration and new opportunities for non-experts to contribute directly to science and future decision making.
Evidential biodiversity and environmental monitoring data, combined with ecological knowledge, plays a direct role in informing our ecological restoration activities. Evidence of the ecological associations between plants and animal species are key to effective habitat restoration. For example we know that Kererū are essential for native bush regeneration, their distribution having huge implications for the seed dispersal of both native and introduced plants, in urban environments and for our native forests.
Also check out the results of our one-day Te Whau BioBlitz which was held at Kurt Brehmer Walkway in July 2015 http://naturewatch.org.nz/projects/te-whau-bioblitz-2015
If you’d like to join our restoration activities (tree planting, weed and pest control) and/or our Citizen Science environmental and biodiversity monitoring activities, we’d love to hear from you.
A great way to keep up to date with the latest events is through our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/whaurivercatchment/
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Whau River
natalie_wilkinson
created this project on March 2, 2016
