The river has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because, for much of its length, it supports breeding colonies of black-billed gulls.

[1][failed verification][2] The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of the snare" for Ōreti.

En route, it runs through the towns of Lumsden and Winton, before passing through the city of Invercargill, close to the river's estuary.

There is excessive macroalgal growth including sediment quality decline and high concentrations of chlorophyll-a in the water column.

Chlorophyll-a was used as an indicator of eutrophic conditions in the water column, and is a colour pigment present in many types of algae that can give an indication of how much algae is present in the water column.