Posted: 22 February 2007
Community day highlights river project
Poroti’s Waimarie Marae is to a host community day to showcase the early successes of a project to improve the health of the local Waipao Catchment, which feeds into the Northern Wairoa river.
The community day is being held at the marae in Draffin Road, Poroti, on Saturday March 10.
The marae committee wants to thank all of the people who have helped so far and involve more of the community to generate more support to protect waterways.
A native plant nursery has been established in an old dairy shed at the marae, and there are plans to grow 10,000 plants a year for distribution to local landowners for riparian plantings, according to marae spokesman Charlie Adams. “It will be our gift to the waterways,’’ he says.
A member of the marae’s organising committee for the community day, Meryl Carter, says the day will start off at 10am with a powhiri and an overview of the project.
“We’re hoping that local people and landowners will come along and share what we are doing and benefit from the information provided,’’ she says.
There will be displays, updates and brief presentations, including from the schools that have been involved, and there will be a chance to find out more about the types of funding and support that are available from organisations such as the Northland Regional Council, New Zealand Landcare Trust and Nga Whenua Rahui. There will be speakers from those organisations, including specialists in water quality and groundwater.
Special guest speaker is Dennis Anderson, chairman of the Northland branch of New Zealand Federated Farmers. He is a keen supporter of sustainable farming practices.
The activities are scheduled to finish at 1pm, so farmers have plenty of time to be home for milking. The marae is catering lunch.