Help celebrate World Wetland Day
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Fancy a walk among nature? Tomorrow is World Wetland Day and to celebrate, guides will be leading a walk through Christchurch’s Travis Wetland tomorrow evening.
The five kilometre walk, led by the Travis Wetland Trust and Avon-Otakaro Network, will traverse Christchurch’s last large freshwater wetland – a crucial habitat for native wetland plants and birds.
Leaving the Travis Wetland Education Centre at 5.45pm, the walk will take in the wetland along Corser Stream, into the red zone and along plantings on Anzac Drive, then over to Lake Kate Sheppard before returning to Travis Wetland via Frosts Road.
Colin Meurk, President of the Travis Wetland Trust, said wetlands played a vital role in reducing the impacts of extreme events such as floods, droughts and cyclones on communities, and in helping to build resilience.
“Wetlands are vital organs of the landscape, although calling them ‘kidneys’ doesn’t sound all that glamorous! Nevertheless, they do filter sediment, break down toxic materials, accumulate carbon, feed our fisheries, attenuate flooding, protect the shore line; while at the same time their distinctive forms, textures, silhouettes and rising flights of wildlife inspire great poetry, painting and theatre,” Dr Meurk says.
“Strange birds like the spoonbills, grebes, herons and shags, and those marathon godwits are literally the ‘canaries in the coal mine’. If the wetland is healthy there will be a great diversity of these birds working away, quietly sifting the water and mud for food, giving us a moment’s reflection on the world and our interdependence with nature.”
Members of the Trust and Avon-Ōtākaro Network will lead the walk.