Going native in Riversdale

Posted on 21 August 2009

Whareama School pupils and teachers spent the afternoon helping the Riversdale Dune Restoration Committee plant a selection of native plants to help stabilise the dunes, including the sand-binding grasses spinifex and pingao and the tough shrub coprosma propinqua.

Whareama School principal Pip Fairbrother says the school has been involved in planting at Riversdale Beach for 10 years.

“We started planting at the north end by the surf club about 10 years ago and have been working our way south. Some of our senior students have been involved since they were five.”
She says the pupils have also helped out planting at the entrance to Rewanui Forest on the Castlepoint Road and will be planting at Castlepoint for Conservation Week in September.

Greater Wellington land management officer Angela Stead says Friday’s planting is part of a wider restoration plan for the dune system at Riversdale that will gradually replace the exotic plants with native dune plants. These plants are the natural sand binding plants for the area and do a better job of keeping the dunes stable and protecting the properties behind them.

Dune committee chairman and Masterton District Councillor Judith Callaghan was delighted with ongoing work of the school and a team of locals, Greater Wellington and MDC staff that planted 2000 plants on Friday.

The dune committee has been active for 15 years restoring the dunes and educating people on how to look after them, such as keeping quad bikes off them to prevent damage to the native plants and erosion to the dunes.

The committee received a $24,000 grant from the Department of Conservation for the next two years for improving the dunes and this planting is part of that.