Formed by the community for the community, this inspirational conservation project won a Cawthron Freshwater Champion Award 2024.
Starting just five years ago with one landowner, this inspirational group now has over 200 community members – who together have planted over 500,000 native plants, constructed two major wetlands and established over 50km of riparian fencing!
Their journey towards the catchment-scale restoration of the Moutere’s ecosystems and wetlands, and improving water quality in the Moutere River, its tributaries and inlet, is remarkable. And they are creating an invaluable road map to inspire other rural communities.
This community-led group has planted over 380,000 funded plants and installed over 51 km of funded riparian fencing. A boost to the groups planting and restoration are the personal financial contributions from private landowners, resulting in significantly more planted and fenced areas than the original funding allowed.
The group have made amazing progress towards better catchment health, thanks to the hard mahi of their passionate community members. It’s truly a collective effort, a huge thanks goes out to the hundreds of people across the Moutere who put in the hard mahi of planting, fencing, and maintaining this fantastic work. What an incredible result so far!
The Moutere Catchment Group Goals:
• An estuary and surrounds with improving environmental health; leading to better habitat, increased biodiversity and more recreational opportunities, which are valued by residents and visitors.
• Restoring the ecological health of the Moutere Inlet and its tributaries.
• Creating social connections in the community to sustain the mana and mauri of our waterways.
We’re running a survey to develop ideas on “where to next for the catchment?”.
If you would like to take part please complete the survey here.
