It's clean up day at the Waiotahi River estuary on January 8, and the Bryan's Beach community is looking for volunteers.

The Bryans Beach Community Group wants 25 people to help collect rubbish along the high-tide mark on the Sunday starting at 9.30am.

The initiative continues the first estuary clean up the group organised in 2014 as part of its efforts to keep the area beautiful. Volunteers are advised to wear old clothes and bring gumboots and gloves.

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council will provide a barbeque lunch once the clean-up work is finished. Those interested in helping out can phone Judy Lewis on (07) 315 4686.

The Bryans Beach community group started in 2007 with six committee members representing about 80 households in the Bryans Beach area. It takes on any project affecting the community, from installing speed bumps along the beach front to weed eradication, largely targeting gorse and pampas on stop banks, river edges and beach and back dune areas, and planting native trees.

Its members have installed a series of predator traps and bait stations to help boost bird populations. They have placed 80 DOC traps from Ohiwa Harbour to the Waiotahi spit across from the pipi beds, and approximately 45 bait stations.

The number of shore and estuarine birds in the area has increased significantly as a result. Many hours are also spent monitoring the NZ dotterel and variable oyster-catcher nests to help the chicks survive. Rat and mustelid numbers have dramatically decreased.

The group has also been involved with a trial to try and reduce rabbit numbers in the area to help with restoration planting and the regeneration of the coastal dune network.

Bryans Beach is on Ohiwa Beach Rd, on the edge of Ohiwa Harbour.