CHANGES ON THE WAINUIORU

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Changes on the Wainuioru

by Neil Kjestrup

My experience in relation to the Wainuioru River goes back to the late 1950s–early 60s as a child.

    The river played a big part in the running of the farm – approximately half the farm was on each side of the river.

    Recreation activities for us children were swimming, catching eels and trout.

    We learned life skills – learning to drive tractors across the many fords that were available due to having shingle beds in a large portion of the river and learning to ride a horse across a flooded river.

    I can remember there were always some willows along the river, but there were a lot of large pools with long clear stretches of river with shingle beds along almost the entire river. There would be a willow every here and there.

    The river never stopped flowing in dry summers.

    By the 70s it became obvious to me that the willows were killing the river. Willows had got that big they virtually went right across the river holding up flow and causing the river to silt up. They also caught any rubbish in the form of other willow branches that would root and start growing. This meant the river would stop flowing during a normal summer, stagnate and kill some of the riverlife in the river.

    I recognised that the willows were a problem at that time and started cutting down young willows and ring-barking older ones. But the problem was a lot bigger than we could handle.

    Nature has to take its course. Floods play their part in the nature cycle in that they help clean out rivers, having a big influence on the course it takes. Willows have prevented this process taking place.

    All major creeks flowing into the Wainuioru River have got the same problem and this has a big influence on the amount of water in the river.

    Most of the time the water quality is fine but unfortunately, with most of the river having silted up due to the willows, in the summer the quality drops dramatically.

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