There is so much restoration happening along the river at the moment that it can be a little difficult to catch up with it all, particularly when it is the on-going action of community groups.  So here’s a little summary of what’s happening and where’s the action. Click a link to find out more information.

Starting in the headwaters of the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River, the Cashmere Stream Care Group in conjunction with the Christchurch City Council (CCC) are busy doing something rather unique.  As part of the huge Eastman Sutherlands Retention Basins system between Sparks Road and Cashmere Road, they are restoring the Cashmere Stream in four stages and returning parts of it from farm drains to its original stream bed. Its been over 150 years since the stream flowed in its original stream bed. The Cashmere Stream restoration is part of the largest ever native planting project by the CCC to date. .

Just a little downstream, Just about opposite Zero’s Cafe, a new community group, the Karitane Valley River Group has just started to slowly increase the number of native plants on the banks of the river.

On the hill above them, the Friends of Purau Reserve have made great advances on restoring the Purau Reserve, a deep cleft in the side of the hill, shadowed by self-sown sycamore, other exotics and weeds.  The group is slowly opening up the canopy to let more light in, removing tradescantia, planting native grasses and trees, taming the water flow with rocks to lessen sediment, improving the paths and steps and trapping predators as well.

If you walk along the Donkey Track behind Thorrington School you will be aware of the enthusiastic work being carried out by the community group led by James Beck to care for this bank of the river.  A lot of weed has been removed, mulch spread and plants planted.

One of the well-established community groups, the Friends of Ernle Clark Reserve are continuing their on-going battle with weeds as well as nurturing their planted native trees in the Ernle Clark Reserve to slowly create a middle canopy in this established woodland and narrow wetland.

Behind the shops in Centaurus Road, the Friends of Farnley Reserve have continued their three-year programme of plantings and weed removal to return this charming small reserve to its previous beauty.  It is the only reserve along the river to have its own sculpture, “Migrating Eels” by Bing Dawe.

A new community group, the Friends of Riverlaw Esplanade Reserve have just started the restoration of this area of the river near the Ensors Road bridge and its little copse of bush. They have already removed a tonne or more of tradescantia to reveal some absolutely beautiful and enormous aestelia thriving behind the weeds.

Just across the road, a single resident, Joe, is tending the CCC plantings along the riverbank between the bridges, replacing dead trees and watering the grasses.  He is an example of the difference that the efforts of a single person can make to the river’s environment.

King George V Reserve, on the other side of the river from Hansen Park, was planted with native trees in 1990.  Now, community members meet regularly to tame the weeds, plant the under-storey and nurture this revived bush remnant.

Not many parts of the river have reserves on both sides, but just downstream of the Radley Street bridge the river passes between the Laura Kent Reserve and the Connal Reserve both of which have blossomed into beautiful regenerating areas following the dredging of the river.  Working with the CCC, a small dedicated group called the Laura Kent Workgroup are taming the weeds, nurturing native plants (some of them planted by local schools) and have installed a loop track with QR codes that provide historical and ecological information for walkers and those who come to enjoy the peacefulness of the reserves.

As the river swirls around the Woolston loop, it passes through older plantings and less disturbed banks, although the creation of the Kennaway Business Park has brought more industry closer to the river.  Here the Kennaway Group, a small but dedicated team, is gradually infilling the true righthand bank with native plants while creating and maintaining a mountain bike trail.

Christchurch’s newest saltmarsh, the Ferrymead Heathcote Saltmarsh beside Tunnel Road just up from the Ferry Road roundabout, is being formed by the CCC assisted by a community group. Twice daily inundation with saltwater at high tide and appropriate planting is gradually creating a saltmarsh environment although it will take several years and the taming of grasses to make it fully happen.

Within the estuary itself, the Avon-Heathcote Estuary Trust is responsible for several reserves including the Charlesworth Wetland Reserve, the Thistledown Wetland Reserve and the McCormack’s Bay Reserve all of which have active groups of locals assisting in their regular workdays to help restore these areas.

The river would be different if it were not for the hills that overlook it and which provide such a load of sediment whenever it rains.  In the hills, established trusts such as the Summit Road Society and the Port Hills Trust are working away to plant eroding valleys to limit the sediment flow from these.  The Avoca Valley is one particular project which has gained significant funding for this…but there will be more of this to come.  The CCC has the Lyttleton & Port Hills Sediment Plan which is funding $9million over the next ten years and is working on a Surface Water Improvement Plan to do even more.

And we could not end this litany of community action without mentioning the Lower Ōpāwaho River Guidance Plan that the Waikura Linwood-Central-Heathcote Community Board has brought together.  This Guidance Plan will influence all future development work on and beside the river from Opawa Road bridge to the Ferrymead Bridge once it is adopted by the CCC later this year.

There is a lot happening…and the community is at the centre of it all.