The Waikawa Environment Group was only launched a couple of months ago. Its aims are to protect dunes and manage pests at Waikawa Beach. The group has an excellent model in an Ōtaki group that has similar aims.
Ōtaki Today, Hūrae/July 2023, Page 10, talks about the Waitohu Stream and Dune Care Group in Waitohu group holds back sea:
A group of Ōtaki volunteers can be credited for helping to hold back the sea along eight hectares of the Waitohu Stream estuary at the northern end of Ōtaki Beach – and it wasn’t even what they initially set out to achieve.
“Our mission when we established the Waitohu Stream Care Group 23 years ago was to address the pollution and erosion we were seeing in the stream,” says group chair Lynda Angus. “With some funding from Greater Wellington Regional Council, we established a nursery to grow locally sourced seeds which we transplanted to the estuary.
”We quickly realised we needed to factor in the health of the nearby wetlands and dunes as it’s all connected, so we expanded our scope.“
Dune restoration, which provides natural protection from coastal erosion and flooding, soon became a key focus for the group. With support from Kāpiti Coast District Council, volunteers started to fill gaps in the dunes with logs and, once enough sand had been captured, planting species to hold it in place.
”Dunes are highly evolved, dynamic natural ecosystems that not only protect what’s behind them, they sustain our beaches and create habitat for some amazing plants and birds,“ Lynda says. ”Despite the pelting they take from wind and waves they are actually really fragile.
“What makes them resilient is the vegetation that grows on them. Our work has focused on re-establishing the foredune with spinifex and pīngao, and we are now progressively planting the back dunes as well.”
A single spinifex plant can trap 16 cubic metres of sand a year, which makes it the perfect plant for quickly rebuilding dunes and restoring the natural landscape character. Dunes can now mend themselves after storms, which is the wonder of spinifex and their long roots and runners.
