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Coast Care Bay of Plenty
Coast Care BOP is a community partnership programme.
 Useing
local knowledge and enthusiasm to restore the form and function of the
dunes in the Bay of Plenty.
Coast Care is nine years old in the Bay and in that time community volunteers
have planted nearly 200,000 native dune plants onto their beaches including
Ohope Beach. A
major restoration project is planned for the Opotiki Beaches up to Brians
Beach on the eastern side of Ohiwa Harbour.
The dunes are the backbone of our beaches, the buffer between the land
and the sea. A
properly functioning beach system will contain a wide, well vegetated
and gently sloping dune, which is a reservoir of sand.
During a storm the dune is a sacrificial zone, buffering the effects of
large waves. We
now know that Native dune plants play a vital role, binding light blowing
sand onto the beach, and  making
stable sand dunes.
Without these plants, the sand blows away and dunes disappear leaving
the land vunerable.
Grazing by stock, excavation for development, introduction of exotic plant
species and pedestrian trampling have significantly reduced the abundance
of these specialised native dune plants.
When the dunes are gone rock sea walls are often installed to protect
property from storm waves, but the sandy beach is lost as a result.
Coast Care Volunteers restore the function of their beaches by replanting
native sand binding plants onto the dunes.
There are twenty five Community groups of Coast Care volunteers throughout
the Bay of Plenty. They are made up of community members who care about
their coastal environment and want to be involved in protecting and managing
that environment. The
groups advise Council which work they regard as priority and get together
to plant and protect the dunes at their beach.
 All
four coastal District Councils; Western Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, Opotiki,
Whakatane and the Department of Conservation are in partnership with Environment
Bay of Plenty to run the Coast Care BOP programme.
The Coast Care Coordinator and the Coast Care Officer offer advice on
reducing and repairing dune damage, help facilitate activities and supply
the volunteers with free resources.
The resources include native dune plants, informative brochures, fertilisers
and building materials for constructing fences and sand ladders and great
morning and afternoon teas on project days!
Please see our website
and find out how you can become a Coast Care volunteer and how you can
do your bit to protect the ecology of our coastline.
Contact information
telephone: 0800 ENV BOP (368 267) email
© Ohope Beach.info 2003
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