August rain event

Did you know that playing in mud makes you happier? Scientists have found that playing in mud will boost your mood due to microscopic bacteria called Mycobacterium Vaccae. These increase the level of serotonin in our brains.

Mud is also an Old English word that has been used since at least 1400.

Nelson certainly has more than its fair share of mud at the moment. Yesterday we headed out to assess the changes to our riparian sites after having over 600mm of rain in three days and the local river running at around 200x its normal rate.

There are areas that are unrecognisable as whole creeks have moved course, banks have gone or sediment and gravel have been built up by multiple feet. But! There is a very good number of surviving plants in areas that haven’t been built up. Yesterday we started the clean-up at @wakapuaka Mouri. We stood up and replaced bamboo stakes where needed and pulled the debris off the plants.

This is the most crucial thing we can do at the moment as the plants need to be able to photosynthesize to survive. Riparian plants are designed to fold over in heavy floods and pop back up again afterwards. It was amazing seeing how well areas that were well established held the bank. This just further reinforces the importance of planting riparian areas.

Unfortunately we did lose the majority of the EmGuards from the lower areas but lucky they are biodegradable!

Overall we have been incredibly lucky in that we have a fantastic team who were all safe during the floods. We work with brilliant land owners who are totally committed to restoring the biodiversity in their properties to counteract events like these, and it has been so lovely to see the community banding together to support one and other through these challenging times. We are certainly thinking of the people in the Top of the South who have had their homes affected by this significant weather event.