Love Lake Wanaka Trust confident of raising planting funds target

Upper Clutha Lakes Trust water project manager Megan Williams is confident funds for riparian planting can be raised by early December. Photo: ODT

Organisers of the Love Lake Wanaka crowdfunding campaign are confident of meeting their fundraising target of $60,000 by the end of the year, despite not having yet reached halfway.

The campaign, run by the Upper Clutha Lakes Trust alongside the Million Metres stream project, is to raise funds for riparian planting in waterways around the Upper Clutha.

The goal is to plant 24,000 plants along the waterways by 2022.

Last September the trust was awarded a $385,000 grant from the Ministry for the Environment Freshwater Improvement Fund to develop a district-wide plan for managing the future long-term health of the waterways, but it had to be matched dollar-for-dollar with private funding.

The trust's water project manager Megan Williams said the trust had set a target at the start of the year of raising $60,000 by the end of September; however, the start of the project had been delayed from March to June, and as of this week the trust had raised just under $25,000.

The delay had made the initial goal "a bit unrealistic", Ms Williams said.

"We have been speaking to Million Metres about extending the deadline for this fundraiser to late November, early December."

"With an extended deadline we are confident of reaching the target [of $60,000]."

Trust volunteers were organising several ways in which the funds could be raised, Ms Williams said.

She believed the Upper Clutha should back the campaign as the lake and waterways were integral to the community.

"By planting trees on the margins of our creeks, rivers and lakes — we are helping to protect and improve our water."

sean.nugent@odt.co.nz