Project timeline

December 2021–July 2022

• Project formally announced
• Project design under development
• Partnership model developed with Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki
• Developing detailed project action plan
• Partnership group established

October–December 2022

• Input on project delivery sought from communities of Te Hakapupu
• Meet and greet between the community and the project team at Familtons’ Farm, end of Patterson Road, Palmerston, 16 October 3pm-6pm
• Conversations begin with rūnaka and community, including landowners, about their aspirations and ideas — these begin shaping the catchment restoration action plan
• Work begins to better define the environmental problems and how they can best be remedied, including collecting environmental baseline data and initial assessment of sediment movement in the catchment

January–March 2023

• Community Meeting in Waikouaiti with landowners and community, 15 February 7pm-9pm
• Begin work with landowners to protect riverbanks through planting and fencing
• Fish passage barrier assessments begin
• Engagement plan completed
• Work alongside rūnaka and community to develop a water quality monitoring network
• Set up a forestry working group with forest owners
• Baseline for environmental monitoring completed

June 2023

• Planting and fencing begin
• Environmental baseline data established
• Water quality monitoring framework begins (ongoing)
• Forestry Action Plan development begins
• Citizen Science Plan complete (community monitoring)
• Mātauraka Māori monitoring to identify and monitor important values for Mana Whenua such as Inaka spawning sites and weaving resource.
• Real-time web tool online to enable anyone to see water quality at any time at various locations throughout the catchment. These tools will measure temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity. The information is collected every 15 minutes and presented on a website dashboard.

September 2023

• Catchment action plan drafted

December 2023 

• Work with rūnaka and community to monitor water quality and other environmental health indicators (ongoing)

March 2024

• Sediment model/budget for the catchment complete. This will estimate the potential for sediment movement in the catchment, where how much and likely weather that will precipitate events. With this information, actions can be planned to protect natural values downstream from potential sediment hot spots.

June 2024

• Planting and fencing continue
• Mātauraka Māori monitoring continues
• Reporting of water quality and ecosystem monitoring
• Science Communications

March 2025

• Catchment action plan (living document) finalised

April 2025

• Landowner agreements complete
• Planting and fencing continue
• Fish passage barrier mitigations complete

June 2025

• Reporting of water quality and ecosystem monitoring
• Science Communications
• Project close