Te Toa Whenua Nursery

Te Toa Whenua nursery open day

Te Roroa and Kaipara Moana Remediation hosted a successful open day at Te Toa Whenua (TTW) Nursery near Waipoua in late September, where dozens of whānau turned up and took part in an event acknowledging the importance of nurturing the whenua.

Local whānau and community members were invited to collect up to 12,200 donated native plants. They included ake ake (2000 stems), karamū (4000 stems), tī kōuka (7000 stems) and 1000 mānuka trees for planting. By the end of the day, more than 80 locals had collected an array of natives to take home and plant.

KMR and Te Toa Whenua staff were on hand to talk about the plants, best practice around planting, suitable planting sites and maramataka and people are encouraged to keep in touch with Te Toa Whenua nursery for future guidance.

Snow Tane, General Manager for Te Roroa, says the open day was a special occasion where people learnt about the whakapapa of the trees which they were able to take away, plant and nurture for future generations of rangatahi and tamariki.

Kaipara Moana Remediation KMR Pou Tātaki Justine Daw says her team was proud to be part of this special day as KMR is founded on the notion of landowners of all types taking action across the catchment.

“Those efforts to protect and restore the mauri of the Kaipara Moana, help reduce sedimentation and siltation flowing into waterways that lead into the Moana.

“I would like to acknowledge the ongoing participation of tangata whenua in KMR’s kaupapa. To date, KMR is working with 75 group-led projects to protect and restore the mauri of Kaipara Moana.

The KMR team recognises the unique perspectives and kaitiakitanga contributions that hapū offer to reduce sediment flows into the Moana, both as landowners and community members, as well as tangata whenua,” says Justine.

“Last year alone KMR met with 53 Kaipara Uri groups, governance entities, ahuwhenua trusts, hapū, marae, whānau and other mana whenua groups in the catchment.

“Much of our engagement has focused on the various freshwater projects that are in train or development, supported by KMR’s Whenua Whānui Fund scheme.

“This is the second year, KMR has run a kaitiakitanga planting initiative, offering trees to the marae in the catchment to support their role as guardians of the taiao. A third of the 39 marae in the Kaipara Moana catchment took us up on the offer this year which was

really pleasing and we thank them for their passion in participating in KMR and helping us to achieve our outcomes.”

Further KMR trees were also planted at events observing Matariki, with school/kura groups, at newly refurbished marae and to support whānau planting days, says Justine.

To get planting with KMR, email hono@kmr.org.nz.