Lots of action at Matuku Link and the site has greatly changed since our February Open Day at which many of you were present.
Our friendly neighbour not only helped with his tractor to pull out all the internal fence posts left standing after volunteers had removed the wires but was inspired to fell the poplar trees on our joint boundary. These were a nuisance to him as well as to us as their suckers erupt many metres away from the trunks into the paddocks. The blackberry and gorse were sprayed and their dried canes were swept away and crushed by the large digger we hired to modify the flatland: various drains were filled; silt was dug from the old river bed giving bigger expanses of open water; some existing reed and raupo beds widened to provide future habitat for wetland species and the site for the nursery laid out.
This is being worked on by Rivercare, a group of Bethell’s locals who have been involved in riparian planting along Waitakere River for over 15 years. A major part of the production from the new nursery will be plants for the revegetation of the flat land previously paddocks.
The Waitakere Ranges Local Board generously granted $3000 for some of the materials to the Waitakere Rivercare Group, so now we can start to build the nursery.
