Streamcare Kaipātiki 

The Streamcare programme was established in 2018 and ran until 2023. To see our current work in this space, visit the Community Flood Resilience work.

In collaboration with Environmental Assessments Impact Ltd, and with the support of Kaipātiki Local Board and Auckland Council, we’ve launched a community-driven stream monitoring programme.

This initiative empowered local residents to take part in meaningful citizen science, focusing on the health of our freshwater ecosystems. By monitoring water quality, invertebrate life, and fish populations in local streams, we aim to generate publicly accessible data that informs environmental stewardship and supports long-term ecological resilience.

Citizen Science

We facilitated stream workshops each term with local schools in the catchments in Kaipātiki area. Working collaboratively with Pest Free Kaipātiki, the programme provided training for community groups to carry out freshwater monitoring. Collectively, 17 streams have been monitored. The school children’s involvement heightened their awareness of the environmental impact their actions have, taught them about stream life and scientific measuring practices, as well as prepared them as environmental champions, scientists and advocates for the awa of the Kaipātiki rohe.

We were thrilled to introduce eDNA testing during a session delivered by Dr Dan Hikuroa with Bayview School students and to launch Streamcare Kaipātiki onto the open-source Takiwa Map in partnership with Environment Hubs Aotearoa, providing each school with their own profile to keep adding their data.

Key to this programme's robust scientific component was our collaboration with EIA Ltd. Results from this programme provided a baseline of knowledge from which future comparisons can be made to determine whether land management practices in these catchments were impacting surface water and ecology. The programme has significantly contributed to our understanding of the ecology and water quality of our awa with data being reported to NZ Water Citizens Database and  NZ Freshwater Fish Database | NIWA.

Thanks to the participating schools!

• Ako Space
• Bayview Primary
• Birkdale Intermediate
• Birkenhead Primary
• Verrans Primary
• Windy Ridge

We thank our funders and partners!