A fifth-generation Waikato farmer has breathed new life into two once stagnant streams that run through his property.
Stu Muir farms at Aka Aka southwest of Pukekohe.
The Papa and Mangati streams flow through his property and after decades of neglect had become stagnant and blocked with invasive willow trees and sediment from the Waikato River.
Photo: Supplied by Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards
He cleared the weedy species, brought in pest control and let the streams flow again.
He's used the project to inspire others - especially rangatahi to learn about what can be done if local people and communities get stuck in and clean up an environment.
Muir is also deeply proud of his te reo - he says he's at a conversational level - and uses it in talks he gives on conservation.
He is up for the Environmental Hero of the Year award in the New Zealander of the Year Awards, which are being announced on Wednesday evening.
As a youngster he heard stories about the streams when he was white-baiting and duck shooting with his grand parents, he says.
“They used to talk about what it had been like when they were kids and then combine with the other kaumatua that were born and bred there, you got a sense that things were going downhill, especially with our whitebait and various species it had come to a state where there was no current left,” Muir tells Nine to Noon.
The first stage of unblocking the streams was to get in there with chainsaws and chains, he says.
“We sprayed out all of the willows that were blocking the stream. And it was just literally with a chainsaw and a mate with the digger and about 50 or 60 meters of chain and just chainsaw it up, pull it up and put it into piles on the bank.
“And then the most important part was really the next one or two years we tried to keep the weeds at bay and then when we planted really, really heavily and after about four or five years it shades out those weeds and with the stream itself once we've taken out all those blockages it was away, like the current was unbelievable.
“I mean I was down there yesterday and you can barely paddle against it now.”
Pest control has also been key to the regeneration of the Papa and Mangati, Muir says, with more than 2000 bait stations scattered around.
“That's made a major impact in terms of the regeneration of the individual indigenous plants and native plants down there, hitherto they just never got a chance, the seeds would be eaten by rats and if something did actually germinate the possum would come along to eat it, so you really notice now on those islands down the river been doing a massive difference.”
With the native trees and plants returning so to have the birds, he says.
“We never had kererū or tui here for years, it was quite a big thing of one would turn up, now they’re common as, you know, they’ve increased the numbers nine to ten-fold.”
The Muir family has a long association with nearby whanua and the local iwi, he says.
“The Hira whanau we've been living next to them for six generations.
“And with Ngāti Tiipa and Ngāti Te Ata obviously, we've been very close throughout all of those generations, and really quite proud of that relationship.
“Even during the land wars, we didn't want to have any part of it. If you've spent 180 years next to somebody, and the transfer of knowledge has only been one way, it would be rather sad.”
