Riparian Restoration in the Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora Catch

Riparian restoration in this context is the revegetation of the margins of rivers and lakes with indigenous species that restore habitat values that have been lost. This may involve removal of non-indigenous species of flora and fauna and includes associated activities such as fencing-off the areas being restored and provision of alternative water supplies for stock.   The Living Lakes Symposium 2007, organised by the Waihora Ellesmere Trust and hosted by Lincoln University with support from local authorities and iwi, identified riparian restoration as one of the methods that provides improvements to the water quality and the habitats of flora and fauna important to the multi-values of Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora. The task is complicated by the different forms of land ownership and use, the increasing intensification of land use, the needs of land users for adequate drainage, and the lack of detailed information at a scale useful to be able to demonstrate the benefits of the restoration programme.The current project is intended to develop and implement GIS-linked baseline and monitoring protocols and data collection to enable the demonstration of the effectiveness, or otherwise, of the riparian restoration programmes of the Waihora Ellesmere Trust. The Wahora Ellesmere Trust is a community Trust that was formed to implement a community plan for Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora (see www.wet.org.nz) and the project has been developed in partnership with the Trust and in consultation with local authorities, central government, Fish & Game Council and iwi. It is a multi-year project building on research undertaken in 2004-05 for the Trust and intended to continue to at least 2014.

Lincoln staff involved in this project are: Hamish Rennie, Crile Doscher, Magdy Mohssen and Kelvin Nicolle.