Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Manawa

Karamuramu Wetlands Restoration

Karamuramu is one of 3 sites along Kopuriki Road to be included in the scope of this project.

Work undertaken at this 19 ha site has focussed specifically on the areas of high-value indigenous vegetation and includes the following:

• Creating and maintaining over 4 km of walking tracks for contractor safety, pest animal control network and over 3 km of vehicle access to improve accessibility for landowners and locals.

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• Pest Plant Control

  • Approximately 10 ha of exotic, pest plant species have been controlled. The work was all ground-based utilising the new tracks.  This work has removed wilding pines, willows, hawthorn, gorse and barbary as the dominant pest plant species in the wetland and provides greater opportunity for native species to thrive.

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• Bird monitoring           

  • Since the inception of the project, native bird counts have increased at this site. This is based on the number of bird calls heard in the baseline survey compared to the number heard two years later. Another survey will take place in the summer of 2022.

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• • The increase is a result of improved native habitat but also the extensive pest animal control undertaken at all the sites.

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• • Native birds heard and observed have included the key wetland indicator species pūweto (spotless crake) (nationally declining) and other native species including spur-winged plover, tui, ruru, piwakawaka, riroriro, miromiro and shining cuckoo.  Many other species of common introduced birds also frequent the wetland including sparrows, blackbirds, thrush, mallards, quail, rosela and finches.

• Vegetation monitoring

  • Vegetation plots within the wetland have been observed over the life of the project to observe changes of invasive and native plant species.  Final results will be provided in 2023.

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• Pest animal monitoring

  • Reduction in pest animals, mustelids, possums and rats by the following percentages​