Waterfall City Wetlands
The Waterfall Wetlands project is a wetlands rehabilitation and maintenance project that KMB started on the 1st of October 2024. Since starting the team has made impressive strides in improving the wetlands overall condition, with a focus on removing invasive plant species and introducing indigenous plants. The Wetland team rotates on a daily basis, covering four different wetland sites within Waterfall City. The team has an average of 5 labourers, however the team can go up to 15 staff members when in peak season. The team takes guidance from a quarterly report that is compiled to monitor the progress and state of the wetlands, this report is also used by the client to maintain their Water use licence.
Challenges
We have faced several challenges such as we have budget constraints which restrict the number of staff and machinery we have at our disposal. Though we have a team which averages 5 members, we are faced with a large area that needs to be worked on and maintained on a regular basis. Another challenge is that some sites are in a far worse state than others which means that some require more work and time allocated to these sites which allows for other sites to fall behind, this demands hands on management with the team being closely monitored. A substantial challenge that we face is the large number of Pompoms Eupatorium macrocephalum that have been in bloom in the wetland buffer zone, these pompoms are seeding and spreading rapidly into the wetlands area.
The LP21 wetlands is an area of 17 746m²
Below shows an area that was heavily invaded with invasive plant species, the team then removed all the invasives and prepped the soil to be seeded.
The area after being seeded with indigenous wetland grass mix.
This is the same area later in the year after the seeds had started to establish.
Unfortunately, the team has been dealing with a large number of kikuyu that has made its way into the area that was previously seeded.The below is the same area that was invaded with Kikuyu Grass, the team making use of black sheeting to kill of the grass as we cannot use herbicides in the wetlands.
The area was then cleared and Imperata cylindrica sods were planted.
As a result of budget constraints, the team have been forced to think outside of the box and come up with solutions for issues at hand such as erosion taking place inside the wetlands. the team make use of coastal erosion bags filled with in situ soil to repair and reduce the spread of erosion.
