August 2025 - Newsletter
Tēnā koutou Catchment members,
Here’s your August newsletter. As always we appreciate your continued support and we would like to thank all those who have paid the annual subscription, thank you for joining us for another year.
As we move into the second half of Takurua | Winter is a great time to start planning for the seasons ahead, to think about planting some natives on your farm or join our upcoming local planting events.
Community Planting Day - Te Akau
Last week we had a very successful day planting at Te Akau Complex, with fabulous participation from Waingaro School, Te Akau School and the Playcentre as well as a great turnout of community members.
The event brought together over 100 attendees who collectively planted an impressive 818 native trees. The planting was most definitely the highlight for the children and I am sure we will have no issues with asking them to come back and weed the area which is part of the programme. We had children as young as two years old planting their first tree.
This large-scale planting initiative was made possible through the generous support of the Waikato Regional Council, who funded the trees, protective matting, and contributed the time and expertise of their fantastic staff on the day. Their commitment to supporting community based environmental initiatives is deeply appreciated.
Damien Lynn was our committee legend of the day attending all day and completing the planting and checks at the end of the day.
We are very grateful to both Robert from NativeAwa and Adam from Restore Native for their continued support donating the trees for both events.
Special thanks go to the Te Akau Golf Club, whose members prepared the site by completing all the fencing and digging the holes in advance — a tremendous help in ensuring the day ran smoothly.
We’d also like to acknowledge Waikato Regional Council EnviroSchools Anna Cunningham who attended and lead the water learning station. The water was very clear with a number of species to be identified by the children. A big thank you also to Anne Woodward, who facilitated the tree identification session, enriching the day with valuable educational opportunities.
And finally a thank you to Anexa Raglan, who generously provided a well-earned sausage sizzle for all attendees to enjoy at the end of the day.
Community Planting Day - Waikaretu
Now we are looking for community support for this Friday's planting event at Nikau Caves & Cafe... Please register here to come for a few hours at our Community Planting event… we will finish with a free sausage sizzle thanks to Franklin Vets.
Some time to socialise with neighbours
Be involved in a community project
Work with our young people from the local schools
Water Quality Monitoring
In January 2025 the West Waikato Coastal Community contracted Beca to undertake water quality monitoring across the catchment. This will help to provide the community with a better understanding of local water quality trends.
What’s been happening?
A freshwater ecologist from Beca, together with a number of catchment group representatives, have been carrying out sampling at each of the nine main waterways in the catchment. One of the aims of the project is to upskill the local community to undertake water quality monitoring independently in the future.
We welcome anyone who is interested to come along to these monthly monitoring sessions. The next water sampling will be on
Tuesday 26 August
If you would like to come along to this, please contact Alex Parrott, Greg Boyd or Jimmy Glenn for times and sites.
We have now collected five months data (from February to June 2025). We’re planning a community event to share results in more detail soon.
Pest Control Abundance Survey
Our Pest Control Information Days on Wednesday 25 June was inspiring and informative.
What did the Waimai and Waikaretu pest surveys find?
What are the implications?
What options are available for the WWCC Community to best deal with these issues?
Wildlife experts Cam Speedy Wildlife Biologist and Jason Day from callofthewild.co.nz hosted a local community day to share the results from our recent pest audits in the Waimai and Waikaretu valleys. They broke down what pests we found and offer practical tips for pest control on your farm or lifestyle block. We were shown a variety of traps and options by David Crimp NZ Autotraps Ltd including the AT220 trap.
The information from this day can be found on our website.
If you missed any of our past events you can access the information on wwcc.co.nz, click on → resources → news to see our past events and newsletters.
New recycling service – Te Akau pop-up
Waikato District Council recently consulted the community on proposed changes to waste services alongside draft Long Term Plan (LTP) 2025–2034. One of the proposals was to introduce a monthly pop-up recycling service for all Te Akau residents starting from 1 July 2027.
We’re pleased to confirm that, following strong support during consultation, Council has approved this new service, and it will now be delivered two years earlier, starting in August 2025.
Importantly, there will be no cost to ratepayers for the first two years. The service is intended to be fully funded by the Waste Minimisation Levy until the targeted rate takes effect from 1 July 2027.
What you need to know:
When and where:
The monthly drop-offs will be between 8:30am and 12:30pm on third Saturday of each month, starting on 16 August 2025. The location will be Te Akau Hall carpark (next to the school).
What to bring for recycling:
Plastics – plastic containers, bottles and trays with the numbers 1, 2 or 5 inside the recycling symbol.
Glass – bottles and jars.
Metal – food tins and drink cans.
Paper and cardboard – flattened boxes and papers.
Do not bring:
Recycling from garden shed/garage/agrichemical products (we can only take household recycling).
Containers larger than 4L
Soft plastics
Preparing your recycling:
Remove lids from containers and bottles, triggers and pumps,
Rinse all plastics, tins, cans and glass, and remove any food scraps from pizza boxes etc.
Separate your recycling into types: glass, paper and mixed plastics and cans (plastics and cans can be co-mingled).
Bring your recycling in: cardboard boxes, tubs, feed bags. Just make sure the weight of each container is less than 15kg.
On drop-off day:
Enter the site where the flag is and proceed at 10km/hr to the recycling truck.
There is a one-way direction of vehicles for the service.
Park, switch off your engine and apply your hand break before unloading your recycling containers.
Our contractors will tip your recycling into the truck bays and hand back your containers once emptied.
Please remain behind the temporary barriers and follow our contractor instructions at all times.
Only one vehicle can unload at a time. If there is a queue of vehicles please remain in your vehicle until your turn.
Once unloaded, continue through the carpark and leave via either exit.
Heoi anō tāku mō nāianei, That’s all for now,
From the WWCC team, Sandra, Robyn and Sarah