Action gets underway at Waitarakao
After working together to create a strategy, Our Waitarakao project partners and the community are now busy implementing it – one plant, one trap, and one beach clean-up at a time.
Our Waitarakao is a collaborative project that aims to restore the mauri of the Waitarakao/Washdyke catchment and special coastal lagoon, just north of Timaru.
The community and partner agencies – Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua, the Department of Conservation, Timaru District Council and us – spent 18 months collaborating on a strategy that was adopted at the start of 2025.
The team has been making the most of the warm weather to progress strategy actions across the catchment, including the following examples:
Waitarakao community beach clean-ups
Volunteers recently completed the project’s fourth beach clean-up.
Twenty volunteers took part in the beach clean-up.
- Six tyres and a road cone were removed.
- Fifteen bags of rubbish were collected.
The effort helped prevent pollution from entering the ocean or lagoon and harming wildlife.
Izzy Macfarlane (Craighead) and Jack Bennett, Luke Campbell (Roncalli), Timaru, are working toward their Duke of Edinburgh Awards
Rural restoration work
Further inland, farmers in the catchment are working closely with our biodiversity advisors on restoration work on their land.
- streams are being fenced off and planted, aiming over time to improve water quality and habitat for native species like mudfish
- water quality is being improved
- and mudfish habitats are being nurtured back to health.
This work is being done with both the environment and future generations in mind.
A recent field day organised by local landowners and Living Landscapes, and supported by Our Waitarakao was a great day out and a fantastic opportunity for the 50 or so participants to share ideas and build relationships.
We thank Living Landscapes and landowners for inviting us along to share in such a positive event.
Biodiversity advisors Jenna Games-Hughes, Abi Hill, and farmer Jeremy Gaskin improving mudfish habitat in Papaka Stream
Community pest trapping
At the same time, community predator trapping initiatives are gaining momentum.
We’ve had a great response from businesses and residents in a target area around the lagoon who have volunteered to host traps and monitoring equipment, which will be distributed in the next few weeks.
This is to support the trapping work we’re doing in the lagoon, and to help prevent reinfestation of that wildlife refuge.
Chris Fauth signing up community pest trapping partners at a drop-in event with Tim Exton from Department of Conservation
Our Waitarakao strategy - actions and projects
There’s lots more happening, including Timaru schools incorporating the lagoon and Our Waitarakao into their learning, and we’re progressing a crucial investigation that will support a blueprint for the future lagoon, as per the first objective of the strategy.
Our staff and project partners are working alongside the community, supporting practical action with a shared vision for a healthier, more resilient catchment.
What’s happening in Waitarakao is more than just environmental work—it’s a partnership between people and place.
Learn more about the Our Waitarakao - actions and projects underway and how you can get involved.