Appendix 4: Description of Stream Habitats Boffa Miskell Ltd | Waihi North Project: Freshwater Ecological Assessment | Wharekirauponga Stream and Tributaries All survey reaches were located within the wider Parakawai Valley, a catchment of regenerating native forest within the DOC managed Coromandel Forest Park. All four survey sites were located on permanent watercourses, with generally similar physical habitats. The surrounding native vegetation and steep stream banks provided partial shading to the stream channels, predominantly along the channel edge. Shading was highest at the upstream site TStream West, where the stream banks were steepest, and the average wetted width was the narrowest. Stream channels generally became wider with movement downstream, with the widest average wetted width at Site WKP-3 (Error! Reference source not found.). Stream channel substrates were dominated by cobbles and boulders across all sites (Error! Reference source not found.). Large areas of bedrock were present at all sites and were most abundant in the stream channel at site T-Stream West, while fine gravels and silt / sand were more abundant at the lower WKP-3 and WKP-2 sites but were still relatively less common than larger cobbles and boulders. All sites had a large diversity in substrates present within the reach. Hydrological heterogeneity of the channels was high across all sites, with numerous bedrock platforms and large boulders often narrowing the channel and creating hydrological features such as chutes, cascades and waterfalls. Riffle-pool-run sequences were abundant across all sites, with pools having a mixture of depths from shallow (< 50mm) to deep (> 1m). Woody debris and leaf litter were present, but rare across all sites. Water levels at the time of the survey were low, with summer flows and a long period of dry weather. Water velocity and water volume gauging was undertaken simultaneously by hydrologists from Golder Associates (NZ) Limited. Wharekirauponga Waterfall is located on the Wharekirauponga River between the T-Stream sites and the downstream WKP- sites. The Waterfall is approximately 4 meters in height. Site T-Stream West (facing downstream) Site T-Stream East (facing upstream)
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