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Plan and timeline
Native planting
To date, 40,000 native plants are in the ground, with over twenty thousand more signed off to be planted this season and a further 25,000 plants proposed to be planted before the end of the project in 2025.
Fencing around waterways
10 kilometres of fencing has been completed of a project target of 35.5 kilometres.
12.5km is currently in progress with another 13.5km proposed for completion by the end of the project.
Fish passage barriers
From an initial target of five fish passages, the project achieved assessment of 20 fish passages for improvements. Of these, seven were highlighted as priorities with budget for at least five to be completed. So far, one of these has been completed — see images below. More work to complete the improvements will be undertaken during summer. This will include installing more rocks in the ramp and mussel spat rope to assist fish in climbing. 
Sediment traps
Currently, 10 sediment traps have been installed across properties in the catchment with the possibility of three more being installed depending on budget.
Aukaha’s planting team has been carrying out the majority of the planting, with landowners also rolling up their sleeves and planting a large number of natives on their land. There have also been several community and school planting days held to give locals and those with an environmental passion an opportunity to assist with plantings of natives around waterways in the catchment.
Through these efforts, we have been able to successfully plant nearly half of the proposed native plants so far.
The plants have been grown and supplied by Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki’s community nursery and Ribbonwood Nurseries in Dunedin and include such species as coprosma spp., carex spp., harakeke/flax and tī kōuka/cabbage tree.
Analysis of river lengths and fencing lengths
Toitū Te Hakapupu project is required to complete 20 km fencing of water ways as part of its KPIs agreed to in the funding deed.
To estimate how much of the main stems of the river was available to fence, the ORC project team developed a map showing the length of the main stem of the river.
Te Kakapupu/Pleasant River and tributaries - river lengths
Waterway (land use)
as per the map above
| Hakapupu / Pleasant River (forestry) | 10 km |
| Hakapupu / Pleasant River (pastoral) | 12 km |
| Owhakaoho / Trotters Creek (forestry) | 14 km |
| Owhakaoho / Trotters Creek (pastoral) | 6 km |
| Tumai (pastoral) | 2 km |
| Watkin Creek (forestry) | 5 km |
| Watkin Creek (pastoral) | 7 km |
This data tells us the following:
Total riverbanks available along the main stem (see map) of the primary Hakapupu and its two main tributaries, Owhakaoho (Trotter), Watkin and Tumai.
Length of river through pastoral farming where fencing to exclude stock is required.
|
River |
Length (km) |
|
Hakapupu |
12 |
|
Owhakaoho |
6 |
|
Watkin |
7 |
|
Tumai |
2 |
|
TOTAL |
27 km |
This means there is a total of 54 km of possible riverbanks to fence off and exclude stock. The project team then calculated the amount of river that will be fenced by the project as of August 2024.
|
Fence status |
Length (km) |
|
Completed |
10.5 |
|
In progress |
12.5 |
|
Proposed |
12.5 |
|
To be completed by project |
35.5 |
The project team has engaged with nearly all parts of the rivers under pastoral farming to install fencing. Much of the remaining river is already fenced.
|
River |
Length (km) |
|
Hakapupu |
22 |
|
Owhakaoho |
20 |
|
Watkin |
12 |
|
Tumai |
2 |
|
TOTAL |
56 km |
A catchment action plan provides important direction in working to protect or enhance an area. It can:
- outline the community’s focus and purpose for land and water management in the catchment
- identify common values and goals, so people work together (pool resources and efforts)
- set out actions and who is responsible for them
- provide clarity of purpose - this keeps everyone on track and helps you obtain support for actions and funding
- help clarify roles and expectations; and
- help provide a framework for tracking progress
May 2023
Community workshop #1 (more information below)
June 2023
Whirika prepared a Context Analysis report to collate information about the catchment, and to inform the development of the catchment action plan. This included, but was not limited to, the following:
- Natural and physical characteristics of the catchment
- Land use
- Social and cultural values; and
- Legislative framework
August 2023
These hui helped to support the development of the catchment action plan.
November 2023
Whirika (formally Ahikā) Consulting developed a draft catchment action plan based on workshop feedback and scientific information and submitted it to ORC.
November 2023–April 2024
Whirika (formally Ahikā) worked with ORC to ensure the draft plan aligns with:
- Other catchment projects ORC is involved with
- Toitū Te Hakapupu project actions
- The science team’s approach to monitoring progress; and
- Forestry actions
Community workshops 2023
On 24 May 2023 we held a community workshop to discuss and build on previous community input.
community workshop
We outlined what a catchment management plan is and what it can do before breaking into groups and asking the following of those present:
- What do you find special about the Te Hakapupu/Pleasant River catchment?
- What is important to you about land and water management in this catchment?
- What challenges are facing this catchment?
- What would you like this catchment to be like in the long term?
The workshop also explored the potential for community-led monitoring in the catchment. This monitoring could help evaluate whether actions set out in the catchment management plan are effective.
Another community hui was held on 14 August 2023 focusing on actions that would improve the health of the catchment.
Areas of discussion included:
- Exploring potential actions to solve issues / achieve outcomes
- Considering who can help with actions
- Identifying gaps in knowledge and expertise
- Prioritising actions / focus areas
December 2021–July 2022
- Project formally announced
- Project design and procurement plan under development
- Partnership model developed with Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki
- Developing detailed project action plan
- Partnership group established
October–December 2022
- Input on project delivery sought from communities of Te Hakapupu
- Meet and greet between the community and the project team at Familtons’ Farm, end of Patterson Road, Palmerston, 16 October 3pm-6pm
- Conversations begin with rūnaka and community, including landowners, about their aspirations and ideas — these begin shaping the catchment action plan
- Work begins to better define the environmental problems and how they can best be remedied, including collecting environmental baseline data and initial assessment of sediment movement in the catchment
January–March 2023
- Community Meeting in Waikouaiti with landowners and community, 15 February 7pm-9pm
- Begin work with landowners to protect riverbanks through planting and fencing
- Engagement plan completed
- Work alongside rūnaka and community to develop a water quality monitoring framework
- Set up a forestry working group with forest managers
- Decisions set on baseline data to be collected for environmental monitoring
June 2023
- Planting and fencing begin
- Environmental baseline data collection underway
- Water quality monitoring begins (ongoing)
- Forestry Action Plan development begins
- Citizen Science Plan complete (community monitoring)
- Cultural Health Monitoring underway to identify and monitor important values for Mana Whenua such as sense of place, Inaka spawning sites and weaving resource
- Waka installed as an online real-time web tool to enable the community and rūnaka to monitor water quality at any time at various locations throughout the catchment. These tools will measure temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity. The information is collected every 15 minutes and presented on a website dashboard.
- Sediment data collection for the catchment complete. This enables priority actions and interventions to be identified to protect natural values downstream from potential sediment hot spots.
September 2023
- Catchment action plan drafted
- Planting and fencing continues
December 2023
- Work with rūnaka and community to monitor water quality and other environmental health indicators (ongoing)
- Fish passage barrier assessments begin
June 2024
- Planting and fencing continue
- Cultural Health Monitoring continues
- Reporting of water quality and ecosystem monitoring
- Science Communications
- Sediment traps completed in priority property for water quality protection
- One fish passage barrier improved
- Project succession planning underway
March 2025
- Catchment Action Plan (living document) finalised
April 2025
- Landowner agreements complete
- Planting and fencing continue
- Fish passage barrier mitigations complete
June 2025
- Final report about water quality and ecosystem monitoring
- Science Communications
- Project close
