The other day, we had a lovely lady named Rachel visit the senior syndicate at Gracefield School. She was a part of the friends of the Waiwhetu Stream organization, and had come to talk to us about the stream. We really enjoyed her talking to us and learning.
Problem
In 2010 The Waiwhetu river was voted the 3rd dirtiest stream in New Zealand. With help from the Council, the Friends of Waiwhetu Stream was formed as a group to help clean up the river. The reason behind the dirtiness was because the industry nearby the stream didn't realize that their paint was going into the river and the toxins made it disgusting and dirty. This is killing fish and some of our beautiful native plants and needs to stop!
Today the Petone and Lower Hutt area is very populated. Only 170 years ago, this was a forested floodplain, with lots of birdlife. In the 1920s, Waiwhetu Stream was popular for swimming and fishing, but as development took place around its banks. At times the stream would turn bright purple or red as a result of the pollution and waste from the nearby Lower Hutt factories being put into its waters. The wastes were then carried out to the shores of Wellington Harbour creating a mess. By the mid-1970s, it was one of the most polluted streams in New Zealand. In times of high rainfall in areas where there are big collections of water, lots of water flows through this river and plain.
Plants help in many ways for rivers. Plants help the stream by stopping bank erosion. Bank erosion is when the sides of the bank collapse and fall into the river. It is dangerous and can clog small passageways through rivers and fertile soil can be lost. Planting trees helps the environment. Twenty people from Room 5 and 6 went to the Waiwhetu Stream to help plant some plants. We planted 40 Carex all together, meaning each pair got two Carex. We found a good spot and started digging.
After we had finished planting all the Carex, we took our gloves off and it was time to go back to school. We really enjoyed planting today with Rosemary and would love to do it again. We thank them so much for giving us the opportunity to help and get involved with our community stream.
https://www.waiwhetu-stream.org.nz/
