Glaisdale Properties
Urban Biodiverse Wetland
Creating a sprawling, beautiful and biodiverse urban wetland in the middle of a residential suburb.
Ecosystem: Stormwater and the bioremediation role of wetland planting
Glaisdale Properties were building a subdivision in Flagstaff, Hamilton, a geographically low-lying area prone to stormwater overload during big rain events. The development needed a stormwater pond that would capture all the runoff from the urban catchment and then retain and slowly release the water into the receiving environment and waterways. The planned wetland would be on the doorstep of residential dwellings and across the road from a rest home facility.
We helped Glaisdale create a massive 2-hectare stormwater detention wetland, surrounding the stormwater pond, designed to retain stormwater during rainfall, prevent flooding and ultimately enhance the area’s natural beauty and desirability.
Kauri Park nurtured 20,000 grasses and wetland plants – all grown in the unique Kauri Park eco-tray system – to meet the development’s key deadlines. Our clever plants always know they are on a mission. In this case it was their job to play a bioremediation role in the ecosystem – taking care of the naturally occurring pollutants and sediments that result from the urban stormwater.
Ecovitalism: An urban oasis for all
Of course, our plants are always playing multiple roles. They aren’t just playing a defensive role against stormwater flooding. In Flagstaff they are also attracting the buzz of local insects, birds and wildlife and have created a picturesque and soothing ecological landscape for the surrounding human residents to admire too.
We are particularly proud of our 20,000 Glaisdale plants because their rapid growth astonished our clients, Glaisdale Properties, and the Hamilton City Council too, who signed off the wetland development withing eight months of planting. The establishment of the new environment was the quickest the Council had ever seen and set a new standard for achievable growth rates achievable.
Today the wetland is teeming with life. In fact, we understand that the riparian zone between the water and land has the highest populations of species diversity of any ecosystem on Earth.
