As the weather gets colder, Porirua City is continuing with its planting season for 2023.
After a successful community planting day in late May at Belmont Regional Park, Council is turning its sights to Battle Hill in Pāuatahanui.
“We had 80 people who volunteered their time to come out and do some planting on a Saturday,” says Porirua Mayor Anita Baker.
Students from local schools also helped with planting in the same area in the lead-up to the community planting day.
The school visits were part of the Riparian and Water Quality programmes run by Porirua City, which aim to educate local youth about the restoration of the city’s precious waterways.
As well as planting, the students found various critters in the cool stream waters of the planting site, including snails, acari (mites), annelids (a type of worm) and even a mayfly.
“The presence of ‘water bugs’ in these waters is important, as it signals the development of a habitat for these creatures,” says Mayor Baker.
Some visitors to the site were even lucky enough to find frogs hopping around.
Battle Hill is also an important location for riparian planting to slow or reverse further deterioration of Porirua’s waterways.
The planting session will be located at the Swampy Gully area of the site, which people can access past the woolshed and the ponds. There will be Porirua City flags out guiding volunteers to the planting site. A sausage sizzle will be held for volunteers following the planting.
Those interested in helping out at the next community planting day, 1-4pm on 24 June, can register their details and how many will be attending by emailing: [email protected].
See this page for more information.
13 Jun 2023
