To link, as Jane Nees does, sighting of godwits as ‘great justification for the mangrove clearance' is just plain silly.
Godwits are spoilt for choice in Tauranga harbour. The flocks move and feed over the vast areas of sand and mudflats and their sighting at Aongatete is a matter of tide and chance and people observing them. It has nothing to do with mangrove removal.
Councillor Nees says that ‘the aim of the (mangrove clearing) exercise was to restore the coastal environment back to sand flat and salt marsh…' In the cleared places I have trudged through, I can tell her that it isn't working. Even the site at Omokoroa, where the mangroves were mulched nearly two years ago, remains an ugly, foetid mess.
The desired restoration of sandy beaches is wishful thinking, and as for improving access and amenity values, does Councillor Nees prefer the desolation at Omokoroa to the attractive mangrove forest that used to grow there?

Ann Graeme, Bellevue.

LEFT: Omokoroa mess after two years.