Now, with an increased focus on the river’s health, landowners and tribes are replanting the hills to reduce further erosion and restore the natural habitat her own family once cleared.Īround the lodge, Marshall has been planting flax bushes and native trees like the distinctive, yellow-blossomed kōwhai. Marshall says that in addition to the erosion, there have been problems in the past with people dumping stolen cars and trash into the river. The people who made the rules, he says, were the planners, the lawyers and the businessfolk. The council has said all decision-making will be guided by the river’s legally enshrined value system, and has pledged “to work collaboratively for the river’s benefit.”īefore personhood, Albert says, the tribe constantly had to make the case for protecting the river before an ever-changing cast of local councilors and politicians in the capital, Wellington. This time the tribe is leading the project with the Whanganui District Council and others working with them. “Now the expectation is that the process will never happen in that way again.”Īlbert has been involved in another, much bigger river project, a refurbishment of two wharves and other improvements at the Whanganui Port costing about 50 million New Zealand dollars, or $31 million. They had a problem with the process in the lead-up,” Albert says.
“These are small things, and the hapū didn’t really have a problem with the bridge going across.
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