Seed collectors await plants' return in battle to protect coast

There’s a collection of little seedling pottles at Les Fleming's Onemana home which contain the future of Onemana Beach’s dunes.

The plants of spinifex and pīngao raised from seed collected at Onemana Beach will eventually be planted back into the dunes to protect and restore them. 

Les and a group of dedicated volunteers have spent hours carefully collecting seeds as part of their work with Onemana Coastcare. The ones grown by Les are part of small homebased projects, but around 20,000 seeds have been sent off to plant nursery Coastlands, in Whakatāne, which has the capacity and knowledgable staff for large-scale germination and growing. About 18 months later, they return as grown seedlings to the Onemana dunes.

Coastcare groups, like the one Les helps coordinate, look after the beaches around the Waikato region. They are partnerships between the local community, iwi, district councils and Waikato Regional Council, all working together to protect and restore our precious coasts. There are currently community Coastcare groups working at 24 beaches on the east and west coasts of the Waikato region.

Across the region, volunteers spend up to 1500 hours planting over winter months, but also carry out a range of other work aimed at protecting coastlines.

Les comes from a finance background and retired to Onemana in 2019. He took up the mantle of coordinating the local Coastcare volunteer group and is also involved in the local dotterel protection scheme.

“I look out at our beautiful beach and across the reserve, and between the beach and the reserve are the dunes. If we don’t protect them, they will eventually be washed away and there will be nothing left,” says Les.

Erosion and large storm events have already had a large impact on the northern end of Onemana Beach and Les says the group is keen to reduce the chance of erosion spreading down the entire beach.

They have held planting days, seed and plant workshops and invited local children to help with planting in the dunes. The work is all overseen by Thames-Coromandel District Council's Community Facilities Field Representative for Parks and Reserves, Tanya Patrick.

While the 2021 planting season was cut short by COVID-19 lockdowns, Coastcare groups across the entire eastern Coromandel region managed to plant 25,000 plants this past season.

Along with collecting local seeds to be raised for planting, Les says the Onemana group also planted around 9000 seedlings provided to them this season.

“We have a team of about 15 volunteers that will come at the drop of a hat, and we also spend a lot of time weeding the dunes,” says Les.

“Our biggest task now is waiting for the plants to come back from the nursery. It’s nice to think those seeds taken from our beach will come back to our beach and they apparently grow better too,” says Les.