Monitoring

Getting started

There are many ways to monitor the health of the site. Some are simple and just require a bit of planning and time. Others need expertise and equipment, and you may need help. This section covers the following techniques: 

• Photo points
• Monitoring your plants
• Bird counts
• Tracking animal pests
• Measuring waterway health
• Measuring aquatic life

Contact your local council and community groups. They’ll have great advice and potentially resources to share. They may even have funding available to help you.

What you measure and document depends on the main reason or focus for your project.

You can use monitoring information to tell the story of your site. It will help inspire others to do similar work. You can also use it to report to funders, relevant industry groups or local authorities. 

Photo points 

Photo-points are a quick, cheap and easy way to see how your restoration site changes over time. They can provide dramatic evidence of the progress achieved.

Photo-points involve taking before, during and after photos in a specific location that remains the same over time. Photos should be taken annually or bi-annually. It’s important to keep a note of the exact location of the photo-point. Often people put a marker or a sign on a fencepost or something similar to indicate the photo-point spot.

1. Pick a specific spot on your site that’s accessible, elevated and out of the sun’s glare where there’s good light. Overcast days work well!
2. Install a marker or post, so you won’t lose the spot or forget where it is, even when things are overgrown.
3. Take the same photo every year to show progressive changes over time. 

Pro tip: Make sure to title and date your photos when you download them. This will make them easy to find and compare over time. Consider using a GPS tracker or Google Maps to record the locations of photo points in your restoration project.  

Monitoring your plants

Note down any native plants that were already established on your site and the number and type of plants you've planted. Make sure to check on your planting site a couple of weeks after a planting to ensure the plants aren't facing any predation by hares, etc. Then assess the survival rates of your plants annually. Walk through the site and do a visual assessment of the percentage of plants that have survived. It is normal to see a little die-off, especially if your region has experienced periods of drought or flooding. 

Survival rates differ depending on the region, weather conditions, plant species and level of ongoing maintenance (including pest control).

Checking survival rates helps you see what’s working and what’s not. You may decide to adjust your weed management based on what you see. It can also show which plants do well in which areas. This is great learning for future projects. For example, if the ribbonwood in your original planting is being attacked by snails and killing plants, forego ribbonwood in future plantings.  

Pro Tip: Marking newly planted natives with bamboo or other biodegradable sticks will help you to find them if weeds grow in. They will allow you to do a quick visual estimate of survival rates. 

Bird counts

A huge positive of restoring your waterway will be the arrival of more birds! Keep a diary of the bird species you see and hear around your planting site. Note how this changes over time.

A good time to observe birds is in the morning (before 11am is best) in spring and early summer when they are most active.

To take bird count monitoring to the next level, learn how to do an official five-minute bird count. 

Want to go the extra mile? Get involved with citizen-science projects and initiatives. It means you can share your knowledge and learn from others. Check out the annual Great Kereru Count or iNaturalist, two popular citizen science projects. 

Tracking animal pests

It’s important to regularly monitor pest animals on site, to understand the impact they are having and the effectiveness of your pest control work.

Following is a summary of the main techniques to monitor pests and links to Predator Free New Zealand, which has a wealth of information on tracking animal pests: 

Waterway health 

There are many ways to monitor the health of streams, rivers and wetlands. Monitoring water quality, stream life and habitat quality together give the best indication of waterway health. You can monitor water temperature, water clarity, water flow, nutrients and pH, the presence of native fish and pest species, animals and macroinvertebrates (water bugs).

An easy first step to take is simply visiting your site, recording the date and your observations of how the waterway has changed as a result of your restoration efforts.

You should see physical improvements to your waterway over time. You may notice changes in temperature, shading, colour and smell. As the new plants grow, they will provide increased shade, cooling the water and stimulating more life. You may see freshwater fish or kōura/crayfish you haven’t seen before.

Monitoring aquatic life and the presence or absence of macroinvetebrates is relatively easy to do and can be a great indicator of water quality. See the section below for more info.

For those able to invest in more long-term and detailed monitoring, check out NIWA’s SHMAK Kit (Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit). 

Also try checking in with local community groups or regional council. They may have a kit you can borrow. They’ll probably have some great advice too. You can also get in touch with Whitebait Connection, an organisation empowering schools and communities to do their own monitoring.

The health of the waterway running through your site will be affected by sites upstream. Get your neighbours upstream and downstream involved to see the biggest improvements.

Aquatic life

The presence of aquatic life (native fish, frogs, birds and macroinvertebrates) is a positive sign when it comes to the health of rivers, streams and wetlands.

Macroinvertebrates (water bugs) are particularly good indicators of waterway health. Some bugs can only survive in clean water, whereas other bugs will dominate in more degraded conditions. The types of bugs present can tell you a lot about the health of the waterway.

Many native species cannot tolerate pollution, higher water temperatures and changes in the stream bed and plants. Their absence can be a warning, and their return a sign of progress. 

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