The rural community restoring Wellington's wild west

Funding generated by Meridian Energy’s West Wind and Mill Creek wind farms is backing local efforts to restore and improve the biodiversity of the Mākara and Ōhāriu valleys. 

With a catchment that includes the rugged Wellington coastal communities of Ōhāriu and Mākara, the Mākara Stream meanders through 8,000 hectares of rural land before flowing out through the Mākara Estuary to the ocean.  
 
It may not be beautiful in a classical ‘tourist brochure’ kind of way, but the jagged terrain - shaped by the predominant nor-westerlies that punch in from the Tasman Sea - has a unique, undeniable charm. 
 
For those of a more intrepid nature, Mākara is a launching point for some incredible kaimoana harvesting, with the rocky outcrops and crevices supporting an abundance of sealife.  
 
Back on land, however, there is work to do restoring the catchment’s streams and wetlands. The estuary is choked with sediment, and the stream routinely tests positive for high levels of E. coli. 
 
It’s an issue the locals, who make up the hundreds of small holdings and handful of large farms in Mākara and Ōhāriu, are determined to better understand and rectify. 
 
“The local community has been steadily restoring streams, wetlands and patches of native bush on their properties over the past few years,” says Louise Askin, a local resident and member of the environmentally-focused Mākaracarpas community group. 
 
“We aim to restore them so they become really good filters of sediment and nutrients.” 
 
While the Mākaracarpas host annual planting days that double as fun community gatherings, “it’s as much about getting the plants in the ground as the mulled wine and the barbeque afterwards.” The group’s work primarily focuses on supporting the efforts of locals who are intent on making a positive impact themselves. 
 
“It’s not like we are an environmental group trying to force people to do the right thing,” says Louise. “It is more supporting the great work that they are already doing, providing resources and sharing information."

“They know through trial and error what does well and what does not in terms of natives, and where they have really cool pockets of biodiversity on their farms.” 

The Mākaracarpas’ eight-person committee helps secure funding, and shares knowledge by providing access to experts and holding information days. 
Last year the group’s riparian and wetland programme supported 27 properties, representing around $100,000 of cash or in-kind contributions from a variety of sources, with just over $12,000 of that coming from Meridian’s Power Up fund. 

Over the last four years, the programme has received almost $59,000 from the West Wind and Mill Creek funds. The funding has helped support the fencing of over 3000 metres of waterways and the planting of over 24,000 native plants. 

While it will take years for the benefits to significantly impact the health of the area’s waterways, there are some immediate downstream benefits from the group’s activities.

The Mākaracarpas source some of their plants from the Ōhāriu-based Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust’s nursery, with the proceeds supporting the Trust’s work treating hundreds of injured or orphaned native and non-native birds each year.

There are also positive spinoffs for another significant local environmental venture, The Capital Kiwi Project.

Following an extensive pest eradication programme, the project was granted a permit to release up to 250 kiwi south-west of Mākara on land that hosts Meridian’s West Wind farm and borders the Mill Creek wind farm. 
The community now boasts a population of over 130 kiwi and in 2023 welcomed the first kiwi chicks successfully hatched in the wild. 

While the scrubby and pine forest land in the release area is excellent kiwi habitat, that doesn’t extend all the way up through Ōhāriu. So, another goal of the Mākaracarpas is to establish “kiwi corridors” – belts of habitat that will allow the kiwi population to expand even closer to metropolitan Wellington. 
“Re-vegetation projects have multiple positive outcomes and that is obviously one of them,” says Louise.

“So when Ōhāriu farmers and landowners look at their planting projects they can also look at it through that lens – that they are creating habitat for kiwi. That’s pretty cool.”

Meridian’s Power Up funding allows the group to significantly scale up its programmes, says Louise.

“It’s really expensive work so as a community we’ve really appreciated Meridian’s support. We’ve been able to do so much more than we would have otherwise through that funding.”