Our freshwater ecosystems are facing numerous challenges. Many of New Zealand’s lakes have lost much of their native underwater plant life. At the Ruakura ‘tank farm’ in Hamilton, researchers have been working on a project to help restore the freshwater forests.

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Learn more:

• Listen to Invasive: the story of Stewart Smith from the Black Sheep podcast to learn more about New Zealand’s pest fish issue.
• Read more about the koi carp bow hunting that removed tonnes of pest fish.
• While the announcement of the eradication of lagarosiphon from Lake Ngatu was welcome it came on the heels of the disappointing news about finding this invasive weed in two South Island hydro lakes.
• It’s not just invasive plants that are an issue, invasive critters like the gold clam can also cause issues. Contained to the Waikato for the last two years, it has recently been found in a Taranaki lake.
• Restoring freshwater lakes and wetlands is a catchment wide effort, but groups around the motu are working on this.

Guests:

Mary de Winton, Earth Sciences New Zealand

References:

NIWA’s RotoTurf webpage.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details