The Parkvale Catchment Trust has got off to a cracking pace in 2026 with many activities happening across the catchment including riparian planting, water testing, trapping and a new sign!
The catchment has the following volunteer planting days planned:
Saturday 23rd May, 1pm
35 Wiltons Road
700 plants
Late June (date to be confirmed)
Hughes Line
600 plants
Details will be posted on our Facebook page. These planting days usually only take a couple of hours & everyone, including kids, are welcome to join!
School Planting Projects
We are also doing a planting project with three schools in Carterton, those being St Marys, South End and Ponatahi Christian School. We will be taking students up to Morgan Lissingtons wetland on Hughes Line to continue the planting we started in 2024. We have partnered with Ruamāhanga Restoration Trust and Enviroschools as part of a wider project where Parkvale Trust can offer offsite learning opportunities.
We would like to thank these two organisations for partnering with us, and in so doing, supporting the important planting work we need to do. Ruamāhanga Restoration Trust have donated all of the plants for this project.
All of this planting work forms part of our goal to plant 70% of the northern side of our waterways, starting with the Parkvale Stream, in order to lower the water temperature and increase stream health. We are on target to reach our target of planting 1,500 trees per year.
Planting with Ponatahi Christian School
Water Testing
On Friday 15th May we will be starting water testing. With the support of Rachel Griffiths from Mountains to Sea Wellington, we will be testing in three locations over the catchment (top, middle and bottom of the Parkvale Stream). We will be doing a Habitat Assessment, eDNA testing which gives us a snapshot of the biodiversity in our waterways and SHMAK testing which measures nutrients including nitrate, phosphate, e-coli, water clarity and temperature.
These tests will be done twice a year in autumn and spring and the results will be available for the use of the community. As we progress with our planting goals coupled with good farm environmental management, these tests will hopefully tell a positive story over time.
Join the Water Testing Team!
We would like to create a volunteer water testing team for this work. If you are interested in learning more about water testing and could see yourself out in the field in our waterways twice a year, then get in touch!
Testing water temperature at the top of Parkvale Stream catchment
Pest Trapping
We had a trapping workshop back in April where we learnt about the AT220 trap. This is the latest and greatest in trapping technology being self-setting and self-luring and targeting possums and cats, but also catches mice and rats. The best part is that the battery lasts 6 months!
The traps are supplied from a small company in Whakatane called NZAutoTraps who have kindly donated the Parkvale Catchment an AT220 trap and offered to subsidise Parkvale Catchment members who wish to purchase one of their own. Simply email them when you purchase and say you are a Parkvale Catchment member.
We have set up the Parkvale Project in the TrapNZ app, so if you are within the catchment and doing any trapping, download the app, find Project Parkvale and start saving your data!
AT220 demo from John Hart, Wairarapa Catchment Collective
AT220 in action!
New Catchment Sign
We have a new fancy corten steel sign! This is ready to be installed but we just need to decide on the perfect location to put it! Keep your eyes peeled for this!
Fencing and Planting Waterways
Lastly, as part of our monitoring and evaluation and also our desire to tell a story about our catchment and be able to feedback information to our members, we would love to have more information about where our waterways are fenced versus un-fenced and planted versus unplanted in the Parkvale Catchment.
This information means we can track our planting progress, helps with funding applications and will help keep our members informed. With a better understanding of fenced and planted waterways we could map the data and have an idea of which areas we can focus on for future planting days.
Get in touch
Always keen to hear your feedback. Get in touch via email: parkvale007@gmail.com