Taane’s $200 goes to wetland improvements

Two hundred dollars is a fortune for a nine-year-old, but Taane Mills reckons he’s donated his earnings to a great cause.

The Marahau local raised $227.60 from his stall sales of daffodils and apples, and he decided that with the work done by the Otuwhero Wetland Trust to prevent the wetlands from just being “a big bog”, the organisation was a worthy recipient.

“They make my driveway look really beautiful and nice,” Taane says. “Also they protect the wildlife around our valley, so we decided it would be a good idea to give them a bit of money for helping us out like that.”

The money was raised over 10 days, while Taane was on holiday with his family in the Czech Republic, and the Riwaka School student says the trustees “were very happy and they said they’ll spend it very well”.

Wetland trust committee member Anna-Kate Goodall says that without support from external funding the volunteers would not be able to undertake the works that they do.

“This is why Taane’s gifting of the koha from his apple stall and daffodil sales is so appreciated by the trust,” she says. “It will allow the traplines and plantings in and around the Otuwhero Wetland to be expanded and continue to be maintained.”

She says the Otuwhero Valley has a high diversity of landscape and ecosystems that provide homes for threatened species. The valley is a stronghold for nationally threatened species such as the banded rail (moho pererū) and fernbird (mātātā), hosts an important whitebait (īnanga) spawning area and provides habitat for threatened plant species.

She reports that since 2011, the trust volunteers have controlled weeds including removing willows from the banks of the Otuwhero Stream, planted over 30,000 trees and sedges in the wetland area and along the riverbank, eliminated over 3,000 wilding pines in the hill forest and established and maintained a network of traplines over 100 hectares, removing more than 4,700 pests from the area.

This year alone, the trust’s 59 volunteers have put 2,745 plants in the ground and given 1,278 hours of their time towards the planting and maintenance of the wetland.