You can help save pīkao
Children from Taieri Beach School
planting pīkao
What can be done?
A priority is to identify and protect natural stands of pīkao where it still exists. With community assistance, areas already invaded by marram grass can be restored to enhance biodiversity and the natural character of our coast.
Pīkao replanting and management programmes are underway throughout New Zealand. At the same time different organisations are doing a lot of work with pīkao propagation, from collecting seed through to nursery rearing and planting out.
A good example of this is the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust's nursery at Company Bay on the Otago Peninsula. They produce some 2,500 pīkao plants a year. Many of these are for projects on land they own or manage, sometimes they can plant as many as a thousand on one site in a season. They also make plants available to individuals and organisations.
The Dunedin City Council also has a major pīkao planting programme and accesses plants from both commercial nurseries and the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust. Examples of this kind of community activity, particularly with groups such as Coast Care, can be found throughout the country.