Volunteer Story Celebration 2025 - Waitohu Stream and Dune Care Group

We are volunteers who love nature and work together to care for 8 hectares of the Waitohu Stream estuary and dune system at the north end of Ōtaki Beach. This is part of the ‘Waitohu Coast and Key Native Ecosystem’, an area rich in biodiversity where people and nature thrive. It is home to lizards, endangered birds and many threatened or regionally rare plant species. In 1999 we started restoring this unique area to help increase biodiversity and natural protection from coastal erosion and flooding.

Our volunteers, who range in age from 7 to 85, work alongside Kapiti Coast District Council environmental restoration officers, in fun and rewarding activities to suit everyone’s interests, level of fitness and capability. Our partners are Kapiti Coast District Council who do the work alongside us, and Greater Wellington Regional Council who fund our nursery work.

We collect local native plant seeds, raise them in our nursery and plant in the dunes. By eco-sourcing we are protecting local biodiversity and the plants are more likely to survive because they are better adapted to the conditions. We release native plants from weeds and remove non-native invasive plants such as lupin, gazania, ice plant and agapanthus. These plants destroy habitats, speed up dune erosion and smother native plant communities.

We monitor predators and look after local bird life, especially the critically endangered banded dotterels/tūturiwhatu and the now recovering population of variable oystercatchers/tōrea. We raise public awareness through signs and work alongside local schools, kura and other groups who join us as part of our education programme.

If you'd like to be part of this friendly team. Check out their current volunteer roles here