Wellington Fish & Game Helps Wairarapa Wetland Projects

February 2, 2012

Wellington Fish & Game has pointed to the huge potential for creating wetlands around the Wairarapa district.

Today (Thursday, February 2, 2012) is World Wetlands Day, celebrated internationally to raise awareness of the value and benefits of wetlands.

Wellington Fish & Game staff are continuing to help landholders in the Wairarapa with the creation or restoration of small one hectare wetlands. This year will see five projects started in the wider Wellington region in association with landowners and the Gamebird Habitat Trust.

Each year duck and pheasant hunters contribute a small fee for a validating stamp on their licence to provide a funding base for the Gamebird Habitat Trust.

Fish & Game NZ Regional Manager Phil Teal says “there’s huge potential for wetland creation and restoration in the Wellington region which includes the Wairarapa and Manawatu.”

He says that seepage areas, boggy paddocks, and unproductive gullies are all relatively easy to transform into wetlands. “Retiring the land doesn’t take too much out of productive farming potential but they’re extremely important as a network for waterfowl.

“These small wetlands not only provide critical refuges for waterfowl and native species that depend on such wet areas, they are fantastic for reducing sediment run-off from small gullies.”

Phil Teal says Fish & Game and game bird hunters are major advocates for wetland protection and enhancement, and for many decades we’ve worked in cooperation with landowners across the country trying to claw back lost habitat.

ENDS

© Scoop Media