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| October 2003 |
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Summer project at Bexley Wetland
Bexley Wetland is about to get a makeover. The area is beside the Avon River just south of the Pacific Park subdivision and north of Bridge Street. The land had been home to a scrap metal yard until the early 1980s when ecologists became interested in its remnants of saltmarsh plant life. These saltwater habitats are very rare close to Christchurch. Local residents encouraged the City Council to buy the 12.5ha site and later set up the Bexley Wetland Trust and put together a development plan for the site. Along with the land, however, the Council also got a contaminated area. Now it has a plan to clean this up. Resource consent applications to do this work were lodged with the CCC and the regional council (ECan) in December 2001. There was a public hearing and, last year, ECan consents were granted. The plan is to dig up the contaminated material and pile it up adjacent to Bexley Road on an area well above the tides and groundwater. The work will be done in February, once the bird nesting season has ended. Over the next few years these mounds will be planted with help from the community. Walking tracks over the mounds will allow views across the restored wetland and the Avon/Otakaroro salt meadow. Over recent years Trust members and dedicated locals have done a lot of planting on uncontaminated parts of the reserve and a large area of the wetland has been restored. In 2001, the Trust won the supreme Department of Conservation award for its efforts. Ulitmately the wetland interior will be shaped as a series of channels and islands to provide a variety of habitats, and will include feeding zones and roosting and nesting areas for local and migrating birds. Council Ranger Andrew Crossland says the number of bird species has increased since the restoration got under way. Large numbers of estuarine birds are using its salt meadow and marsh habitats and the five species of native duck found locally are now breeding there. "A real success story for Bexley's been the recovery of pied stilt numbers after many years of heavy losses of eggs and chicks predators," Mr Crossland says. "More than a dozen pairs bred last year, with a high survival rate of chicks." |