Our Area

Upper Waitematā Harbour

Our area

Upper Waitematā Ecology Network’s aim is to link the restoration activities, organisations and groups across the Upper Waitematā and its close surroundings. The Upper Waitematā itself is located in the Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland region.

Mana Whenua of the area are:

• Ngāti Maru
• Ngāti Whanaunga
• Ngāti Tamaterā
• Ngāti Manuhiri
• Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua
• Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara
• Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei
• Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki
• Te Kawerau a Maki
• Te Akitai Waiohua
• Ngāti Te Ata Waiohua
• Ngāti Paoa.
There are Archaeological sites (middens and pā sites) around the coast of the Upper Waitematā, such as in Lucas Creek.

The Upper Harbour Local Board area is about 6990 hectares. Of these 6990 hectares, 843 are spread between 261 parks and open spaces located in Whenuapai, Herald Island and Hobsonville and West Harbour in the west, Paremoremo in the North and Greenhithe, Albany, Rosedale, Northcross, Unsworth and Pinehill in the east. We currently support groups in Whenuapai, Herald Island, Hobsonville, Albany, Paremoremo, Greenhithe. We also support a groups in the Rodney local board area such as in Kumeu and Coatesville and which activities are crucial to our own achievements.

Waterways and motorways are woven into our area, they both connect and separate our communities. Our geology is a mix of steep clay hills and low lying alluvial soils in the East and low-lying fertile soil in the South West.

The North West Wildlink corridors represent yet other threads interlaced into our territory:

Our area plays a key role in The North West Wildlink (NWW) which “envisions a habitat corridor that establishes a landscape scale linkage across the north of the Auckland region, providing ecological connectivity” from the “Hauraki Gulf islands including Tiritiri Matangi, Rangitoto and Motutapu in the east to the Waitakere Ranges and Oakley Creek to the south, to Muriwai and Orewa in the northwest coast”.

The Upper Waitematā is composed of important stepping stones of native habitat in which restoration activities are crucial to allow “safe passage and breeding for native wildlife in a corridor across the north of Auckland” (Boffa Miskell Ltd).

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