Invasive oxygen weed clings to the banks, over-reached by wilding pines and weedy willows—a flora drastically altered from the forest that would have once fringed this waterway.

Invasive species, agricultural chemicals and pest plants radically change the ecology of river systems over a very short period of time. The ecology of the Waikato River reflects our activities on land—where we allow pollution, the river will be polluted, where we restore wetlands and plant significant riparian margins, the river will run clean.