Child of the Mahurangi states forests need buffer zones

Forum South-East Asian Survey Congress

My name is Tegan Illingworth.

Nine Years Wise: Tegan Illingworth, although the youngest presenter at the South-East Asian Survey Congress was strong on detail, calling for riparian buffers to be standard exotic forestry practice. photographer Richard Bromley

I am nine years old and I live in Warkworth, which is north of Auckland and Auckland is the biggest city in New Zealand. I am here to share information about Waicare.

One reason I am in Waicare is I love birds, especially budgies and any native birds. In the time that I have been in Waicare I have learnt many things about our rivers and streams. With the support of my Waicare group and parents I have learnt about sustainability. These are the things that I think need fixing in our environment:

1. That the clearing of our forests causes the main amount of sediment run off in our rivers and streams.
2. Metal roads close to streams when it rains causes a lot of sediment run off, oil, metal and things associated with cars and trucks.
3. When livestock enter our streams they trample all the wildlife in the streams and their habitats get ruined.
4. There needs to be a lot better management of surface water from around industrial and high residential areas.

These are my ideas on how to make my ideas sustainable. We need to act now to make my ideas real.

Christchurch at Last: the Stream Rescue Team assembled for the South-East Asian Survey Congress. photographer Richard Bromley

With the forests we need to have buffer zones. This could be achieved by not chopping down all the pine trees at once around the streams.

With the metal roads we need to tar seal these and also have sediment traps at the end of pipes.

We need riparian planting and fencing our waterways to keep the livestock out. My personal experience of this is my father and his brother fenced and planted out the whitebait spawning edge on the Hoteo River. They went from catching a cup of whitebait a day to catching a bucket of whitebait a day. I really do like eating whitebait, don’t you? This is a practical way of enhancing our fishery.

Around industrial areas we need to have a lot more sediment holding ponds for the run off water.

These are my ideas to make streams and rivers a healthy place and I charge you, the surveyors to act now and find a way to put these in your surveying plans, for a sustainable future for all.

Tegan Illingworth’s Vision

My vision is to see all streams and rivers protected and healthy so all generations can enjoy the beauty of our great outdoors.

Stream Rescue Team

• Tegan Illingworth
• Rebekah Leibeziet
• Georgia Monks
• Lottie Thompson
• Sarah Thoroughgood

See also Presenters Warm Up