The Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society is counting its blessings after receiving the lion's share of community conservation funds in New Zealand.
The Department of Conservation grant funds native plant restoration projects on public land but requires groups to provide ongoing support.
Three Northland groups have been given over $105,00 in total by
DOC.
Bream Bay Coastal Care and Bream Head Conservation Trust were also on the receiving end.
The Mangawhai group was given $89,000 to assist with a 1.5km-long windbreak fence and the planting of native spinifex and pingao on sand dunes. The society was formed in 1990 and is made up of 3500 ratepayers who contribute $78 annually. The funding the society received complements its own contribution of $23,000.
The project is part of the society's goal of restoring all of Mangawhai Harbour to its former state. The refuge is a nesting area for seabirds including the fairy tern and variable oyster catcher.
Dredge and planting co-ordinator Jim Wintle, who helped put the funding application together, said he was "over the moon" to find out his group had received the total amount requested.
"It's a real shot in the arm for us and the only real funding from outside of the community we've ever had."
The money would allow the restoration society to bring its planting programme forward by eight years, he said.
About 120,000 community hours had been worked so far and the funding was "recognition of the good work we've been doing".
Bream Bay Coastal Care Group were given $13,123 to help with weed control and revegetation of dunelands at Paradise Shores.
The Bream Head Conservation Trust received $3000 to aid with the revegetation of Bream Head Scenic Reserve, located at the end of Whangarei Heads. The money will enable the trust to buy over 8000 native sourced plants for a 1.5ha area in the reserve. This is on top of the 5ha the trust has already revegetated.
Forty-six projects throughout New Zealand are receiving funding for over 250,000 plants as part of the funding allocation. Eleven thousand metres of fencing will be erected to protect restoration plantings from stock and pests, with over 3000 volunteers undertaking weed control, plantings and maintenance.
