World Wetlands Day - Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People

World Wetlands Day is held on February 2nd each year and marks the date when the Convention on Wetlands was adopted back in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The theme of this year's event is "Healthy Weatlands, Healthy People". Wetlands used to be viewed as smelly, unproductive spaces to be drained and converted to other uses as quickly as possible. In the past few decades this view has slowly changed as humans have realized that wetlands protect us from coastal erosion and storm surges, help store water and release it slowly thereby mitigating the impact of floods, improve water quality, are a storehouse for a variety of flora and fauna including species that we eat and use for medicine. Indeed, the health of humans and wetlands is inextricably linked.

I LOVE wetlands and celebrated by attending a pateke release. Pateke, or New Zealand brown teal, is an endangered duck species. Pateke used to be one of the most numerous birds in New Zealand prior to human arrival and could be found from the northern to southern tip, from sea level to 700 m. But a combination of habitat loss and arrival of mammalian predators means that now only between 1,000-2,000 birds survive in the wild.


Pateke call wetlands home, but unfortunately 98% of wetlands in New Zealand have been lost. To put this into perspective the US states of California and Ohio have also lost over 90% of their wetlands. In contrast, Europe has lost about 60%.

Even if Pateke manage to find and set up shop in the remaining New Zealand wetlands their chicks inevitably fall prey to a suite of introduced predators - stoats, ferrets, weasels, and feral cats. Fortunately there are a few mainland islands, such as Tawharanui and Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, in New Zealand which are free of these pests. And as long as pests are kept at bay, pateke are known to be very rapid breeders.


The pateke release was a magical even because it brought so many people together for a great cause: from the Auckland Regional Council who had the forsight to acquire Tawharanui Regional Park in the 1970's, to the local school children who learned about the pateke and created artwork, to the Tawharanui Open Sanctuary volunteers whose hard work and dedication ensure the park remains predator free, to the captive breeders to reared the birds from chicks to adults, to Banrock Station wines who provided funding for the release, to the Department of Conservation recovery team who developed the methods for raising and successfully releasing the birds, and to the kapa haka group from Mahurangi College who delighted us with their welcoming songs.

Environmental issues can often seem so daunting, but people CAN make a difference. Businesses, national government, school kids, volunteers, and local government came together to make the wetlands at Tawharanui a bit healthier. We waited with anticipation for the park staff to open the lids and release the birds into their new home. I'm sure the ducks were eager too after being cooped up in boxes and flying (by plane) from Christchurch to Auckland. As the ducks glided into the still water and the audience glowed with delight, I'm sure I wasn't the only one hoping that the 20 pateke soon increase to many, many more!

Several feeder stations had been set up in the wetland to temporarily provide the pateke with food as they adapted to their new setting. But within moments of their release the pateke were paddling along the stream and dabbling for food at the water's edge.

The Wonder of Wetlands

Kyambul Lagoon is not a lagoon in the scientific sense because it is not located along the coast. It is really an oxbow lake, a former river meander, known to Australians as a ‘billabong’. Kyambol Lagoon is in the middle of sugar cane paddocks, but it didn’t always used to be this way.

We were greeted by Caleb* and Harry*, two Aboriginal brothers who are the traditional owners of this place. As young boys they camped along the edge of the lagoon with their parents and grandmother. Back then, the lagoon was surrounded by tropical lowland forest. They camped in humpies, semi-circle tents made out of bark, and enjoyed swimming and tasty bush tucker including numerous barramundi which they caught from the clear lagoon water.

Caleb is the oldest child in his family and his mother gave birth to him along the shore of the lagoon. The remaining four children were all born in hospitals – a sign of the changing times and the influence of European culture. Miraculously, despite church missions and events such as the stolen generations, when Aboriginal children were often forcibly removed from their parents by the Australian government, Caleb and Harry grew up alongside their parents and their family remains closely connected to the land. They lived at the edge of the lowland rainforest where the upland rainforest meets the lowland. This is a good spot to live as the lowland rainforest and interspersed paperbark swamp is flooded during the wet season with several meters of water.

Kyambul Lagoon is only accessible during the dry season, once the flood waters recede. The floodplains used to have numerous lagoons, but around the 1950’s the floodplain was cleared for cattle grazing and lagoons were filled in. Caleb recalled that the day when the forest was cleared near the lagoon made his father quite sad and distraught. It happened with no warning and the large trees were toppled and cut up one by one. He watched his country, his soul, being ripped apart and knew that it would never be the same again. Caleb and Harry’s father ran home crying and explained the pain and anguish to his family. At first they couldn’t comprehend what was happening and since they were young children, they didn’t realize the full implications of clearing the land. As Caleb and Harry grew up, more land was cleared and one day they raced to the lagoon to ensure that the heavy machinery did not destroy the grave sites of their grandmother and other family members.

We were impressed that Caleb and Harry swam in the lagoon even though crocs were present. In the past only one croc called the lagoon home. But now that other lagoons in the area have been ploughed over, several crocs have crowded into Kyambul. It turns out you can swim in a lagoon with crocs as long as you stay in the very shallow areas. Caleb also shared with us the technique his father used for hunting crocs. Several men in the community are needed to hunt a big croc. First the men find a nice big ‘wait-a-while’ palm and gather the long tendril embedded with thorns. This plant is so named because if the thorns snag your skin or clothing as you walk near the palm then you will have to wait a while to extract yourself. For similar reasons, this plant is also known as the lawyer vine. Somehow the Aboriginal men held the long tendril in such a way as to not get stuck by the thorns. Then one of them was elected to dive to the spot where the croc was hiding in order to wrap the tendril around the croc’s jaw. Once the tendril was looped around then man would give it a tug and the group on shore would pull the loop shut and wrestle the croc to the surface.

Aboriginal people would control crocodile numbers in other ways as well. Each time female crocs would lay a nest of eggs they would take all but one of the eggs. What we wanted to know was how they distracted a protective mother croc! Croc numbers in the area really plummeted once Europeans began to hunt them, but recently the numbers have rebounded since a no hunting law has been put in place.

Kyambul Lagoon today has water that is milky blue in appearance due to suspended sediments. Several sediment taps have helped to improve water quality by catching fine grain sediments that run off the cane fields during the wet season. In recent years cooperative work among the local land council, traditional owners, and Conservation Volunteers Australia has really improved the lagoon. Rainforest trees have been planted around the lagoon and act as a buffer and help to revitalize the native vegetation that has been displaced by paragrass – a weed planted for cattle grazing that has spread into wetlands and choked water movement. Over a dozen native fish species are present in the lagoon, which is pretty miraculous considering it’s an island surrounded by sugar cane.

The next wetland we visited was one constructed by Richard*, a very forward-thinking farmer, in order to filter water from his cane paddock. Richard has constructed about five wetlands on his property and has helped to finance the construction of several wetlands on his neighbors’ properties – all to ensure good fishing in the surrounding creeks and rivers. An untouched part of his property, which consists of lowland rainforest and paperbark swamp, has been set aside for conservation and he has planted countless trees as riparian vegetation along the numerous creeks which run though his property. It’s really thrilling to know that people are willing to undertake conservation activities on their private property and to see that they have a pronounced affect on water quality and biodiversity.

Of course, it’s not always easy being ‘green.’ Richard faced a lot of opposition and some neighbors thought he was crazy when he constructed his first wetland 20 years ago. But then when they saw how nice it looked with vegetation around the edges and a roosting island for birds in the center, everyone wanted one!

We visited one final land owner, Bill*, who is also a cane farmer. Land Care Australia contacted him about the wetlands on his property and asked him how they could best provide assistance in conserving them, as they are very high value wetlands and form part of the larger Eubenangee Swamp system. In working collaboratively with farmers, Landcare has found ways of reducing fertilizer applications to the fields and thus preventing eutrophication of surrounding wetlands. Otherwise excessive nutrients cause algal blooms which strip wetland waters of oxygen, resulting in fish kills. Riparian tree planting has been incorporated with other routine farm activities so that conservation measure which prevent the erosion of creeks banks are not an inconvenience.

By the time we wrapped up at Bill’s farm the light drizzle had turned to rain, but we were determined to visit Eubenengee Swamp National Park located just down the road. The rainforest portion of the park had been hit quite hard by Cyclone Larry, still it was impressive to see. We were quite in awe of a tree with whitish-yellow spongy bark . At the end of the rainforest we came to a grassy hill forming a lookout point. As we climbed up, the view was spectacular. It’s an entire swamp complex with open water interspersed with sedges and large stands of paperbark for as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately it’s been invaded with an aquatic weed, hymenachne, which reduces the dissolved oxygen present in the swamp water. This plant is very difficult to remove and additional seeds are always supplied by the rivers flowing into the swamp. In some locations the Queensland government has been successful in using a combination of mechanical harvesters, smaller boats, and salt spray to kill and loosen up the tangle of plants.

J and I were completely drenched by the rain at this point and hiked back down to the waiting bus. My head was spinning, not because I was cold and wet, but because it was uplifting and inspiring to hear several environmental success stories…and it was touching to meet the owners first hand. Too often in university settings we talk about including land owners as part of the solution, but don’t often have the opportunity to put abstract concepts into practice.

*Note: Names have been changed to provide anonymity.

Rainforest Conservation at Sugarcane Creek

We packed up and made plans for our next adventure, WWOOFing, which stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. Basically it involves staying at a private property - which is usually a farm, but can be bush, a sheep station, or a house with a modest yard – with free room and board in exchange for a few hours of work each day. We booked a bus trip along the coast north to Port Douglas and it turned out to be a beautiful ride. Some of the beaches were occupied by resorts, but most were deserted and covered with sand and large black rocks, which we later learned were former corals. Mangroves were present along more protected shores and impressed us with their prop roots, dense branches and leaves. Mike*, our host, picked us up in Port Douglas and we headed to the grocery store to get supplies for the week. We took a very curvy and swervy ride into the mountains and Atherton Tablelands, including over dirt and gravel roads, to get to his property. We did a short bit of work, graveling a garden path, interspersed with a tour of the bush and rainforest. We were thrilled to be at Sugarcane* Creek!

By working on the property, we could slowly soak up the land and look at it again and again until we had truly been there and not just toured. Cairns has lots of great things to see and do, but everything we saw was seen by thousands before. There is special satisfaction in going somewhere that few people get to go. We also feel that Mike is doing valuable work preserving and enhancing the rare landscapes that exist on his property.

In planning our backpacking trip across Australia we were excited to include several weeks of WWOOFing as a way to meet and get to know several Aussies and give back time and energy to this awesome environment. Our time at Sugarcane Creek fulfilled all of our desires and more. We were very impressed by Mike’s eco-friendly home, which he built himself. It is powered by solar energy, has a composting toilet that requires no water or chemical treatment, and has a grey water system that naturally treats all water used in the home. There are fresh eggs laid daily by the chooks (i.e. chickens) and a vegetable and fruit garden provides all the fresh produce you could ever need. I hope Jonathan and I have an eco-house in the woods some day!

We worked on a variety of projects while at Sugarcane Creek. Much of our time was spentremoving Lanata, an invasive garden shrub (originally from South America) which forms dense walls at the edge of the rainforest. This dense growth smothers existing rainforest trees and prevents new seedlings from growing. We encouraged the growth of grass trees, a rareAustralian plant which grows in open forests, by removing abundant she-oak saplings that were providing too much shade and setting a controlled burn to provide frequent fire. We also finished graveling the garden and rainforest paths.

In our free time we relaxed, read, toured various tracks throughout the property, swum and hiked around Molloy Lagoon, and were treated to lunch at an Aussie pub. I also voraciously read several of Mike’s Australian flora and fauna reference booksand he gave me several botany lessons on the differences between Eucalypts and Melalucas. It was very satisfying to learn more about the land we were travelling through.

The wildlife on the property was also memorable. We spotted a Boyd’s Forest Dragon clinging to the lantana, were greeted by a green tree frog in the dunny (i.e. bathroom), enjoyed the kookaburras laughing at dusk in the front yard, and watched colourful birds flit around at Molloy Lagoon. Going for a night walk and watching sun rise and sunset from a lookout point on the property were well worth it. The sounds of birds and other animals are noticeably different depending on whether it is daylight or night time. The lookout point allowed us to see the rainforest lining the creek as well as the sugarcane paddock of the surrounding properties. The sun glistened off the cane heads in a silvery light.

Once again I was enthralled by the texture of Australian vegetation. The juxtaposition of ‘bush’ versus rainforest was amazing in terms of bark, leaf shape, presence of vines, and openness of the canopy. In one location on the property a paperbark swamp is on one side of the track and rainforest is on the other. It is amazing to look at both distinct ecosystems, each with quite different visual attributes, in one glance.

The biggest challenges we faced were rounding up the chooks at the end of the day, chickens are not the smartest of creatures, and dealing with Clancy the dog who was half Australian cattle dog and half Kelpy. Clancy insisted that he follow us everywhere – in the back of the jeep, to the rainforest edge where we pulled up lantana, and on walks around the property. He did not have the greatest manners – we couldn’t leave clothes or books outside or he would chew them up and every time we went outside we wore our dog ‘armor’ (i.e. old work clothes) because inevitably he would jump up on us. Eventually, after a week, we succeeded in getting him to learn the word ‘off.’

We worked alongside another WWOOFer from France, Elizabeth*. We helped to translate from time to time, but assured Elizabeth that her English was much better than our French. In the evenings the three of us enjoyed cooking up tasty meals and talking over dinner. In a time when there are so many pressing environmental issues, it is great to know that Mike is working so hard to expand the rainforest and manage other special environments on his property. As Mike observed, this is one of the few places in the world where the amount of rainforest is actually increasing. We are pleased and honoured to have been a small part of what goes on at Sugarcane Creek.

*Note: People and place names have been changed to provide anonymity.