Install 20 litter traps and 160 steel fish in NZ

Its been a busy few months!  We are so grateful for your support which has helped us to do so much to engage our community to preserve our beautiful high alpine waterways. 

 Urban Catchment Groups

We supported the formation of our 3^rd urban catchment group, the Lakeside group. In collaboration with our local council, QLDC, the lakeside area was cleared of invasive species such as willows and lupins.  In collaboration with Te Kakano and Wanaka Backyard Trapping, we replanted the area with native species and installed an extensive trapping network which will remove predators like possums and stoats.

Drains are Streams

We installed our first community litter trap in Wanaka. With the support of Veolia and the Residents’ Association of Albert town, it was placed in a drain in front of the shopping complex and will be checked monthly by residents. The trap will provide useful feedback on what is traveling down our ‘urban streams’ and into our Lake. This will help educate residents and businesses to change their behaviour. More in the next report! 3 litter traps have been ordered but more funding is needed to reach our goal of 20.

In August, local community group, Friends of Bullock Creek, drilled steel beasties (carvings of tuna, trout, koaro and crested grebe) onto the storm drains that surround the hatchery’s entrance on Stone Street. This will remind residents to that only water should go down them as everything ends up in our lake.

The Teeny Tiny Truth - Microplastics in our Waterways

‘A Teeny-Tiny Truth’ – is a research project that investigates microplastics in our fresh water, while empowering our community to participate and drive change. This week we invited residents and students to collect water from the lake and test it.  Working with PhD student Veronica Rotman, we are testing the lake water in 9 locations using 3 different methods.  Everyone found plastics!

Links:

• Microplastics Research project
• Urban
• Our drains are streams

It's been a busy 6 months at WAI Wanaka.  Here's an overview of how we have empowered volunteers to take environmental action.

Urban Catchment groups - Yo Eco, an environmental group aged 18 to 25 year olds, conducted a lakeside clean ups and recorded the items and amount collected.  They also met to discuss ways to reduce their environmental impact through what they buy and how they invest.

Our Drains are Streams -  Children from local preschools cleaned drains and learned why we must not allow waste items to go down them.  They helped install a metal fish next to the drain to remind people that what goes down reaches our fish and our lake.

Embracing Te Taio - 80 students from the local school visited a farm to do aquatic health tests and soil testing to measure the impact of farm activities on the environment.

Secchi Disc testing - 10 local residents went out on kayaks to do water clarity and temperature testing on Lake Wanaka and uploaded their results on a world wide ap.  This information will help us monitor our lake health.  

Links:

• Learn about volunteer led event at the A&P show in March
• Urban catchment groups taking action to protect our lake
• Our volunteers learning how to protect our urban water streams