21 October, 2020

Volunteers show the way to greener future

Volunteers co-ordinated by the Restoring Takarunga Hauraki Trust are transforming the peninsula one reserve at a time. In a few months they have removed 500kg of noxious weeds from Shoal Bay’s coastal fringe in Bayswater. Anneka Brown looks at their work.

Restoring Takarunga Hauraki has been busy over the last couple of years, helping improve the likes of Achilles Reserve, Paddy’s Bush (by O’Neill’s Pt Cemetery in Bayswater), Shoal Bay, Maungauika, Takarunga, Sandy Bay Reserve and Jutland Reserve in Hauraki, encouraging and enhancing native-bird populations by eradicating pests, weeding and planting.

Now, the trust is set to add Philomel Reserve in Bayswater to its roster.

Restoring Takarunga Hauraki environmental coordinator Lance Cablk says: “The establishment of new plants is a success in itself. Some of our work is measured with surveys on bird numbers and water quality, but especially on the engagement of a thriving community.”

Cablk says work has gained momentum, and in the last year, volunteers have removed a substantial amount of blue morning-glory weed from Paddy’s Bush, planted more trees at Achilles Reserve and have recently been tackling moth plants at Jutland Reserve.

Work is still ongoing and the trust is seeking more volunteers.

Cablk says more korimako (bellbirds) have been noticed at the base of Maungauika, something he believes is due to the continuous setting of rat traps as part of the trust’s Pest-free Halo project around the maunga.

Tui are now nesting, and tomorrow (24 October) the community will be welcoming back the godwits, which have travelled 11,000 km on a trip around eight days from Alaska to Shoal Bay. Some 200 pairs are expected to have arrived.

Philomel Reserve, tucked away behind Philomel Crescent, suffers from morning-glory weeds and Japanese honeysuckle smothering native trees. Compared to Achilles Reserve, which is now almost completely weed-free thanks to community efforts, Philomel needs a lot of restoration work.

Each week on Mondays and Fridays, a small group of five to 10 volunteers works at Achilles Reserve, Paddy’s Bush and now Philomel.

Bayswater Primary’s eco-warrior group will also be adopting Philomel Reserve to carry out maintenance weeding and planting activities.

Earlier this month, Charmaine Bailie, who is the director of environmental consultancy organisation, Uru Whakaaro, hosted an ecological hikoi at the He Manu Hopukia marae in Bayswater. Almost 40 keen local residents attended to learn more about native plants and restoration work.

The event began with marae founder and kaumatua Danny Watson speaking about the importance of protecting the land. Later, Bailie led residents on a tour through Philomel Reserve and Shoal Bay. For some, it was their first time stepping foot on Philomel Reserve and seeing just how much restoration work would need to be done.

“It is widely thought that there is a disconnect between the community and nature, which is not only bad for our well-being but for our environment,” says Bailie. “I look at it this way. People living locally have an incredible opportunity to go down and reconnect with plants; they can contribute to some of the work that needs to be done and that’s the best way to learn.

“It’s very addictive, it’s so much fun, you meet incredible people, there are birds around you, the air is fresh. It doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of work to do.”

Volunteer John Mercer, who lives near Hanlon Cres, has been working with a group of volunteers every Friday for almost a year to clean up Achilles Reserve. “I just found a note on the street one day saying there was an Achilles eco-restoration programme happening and so I turned up. I thought it would be good fun,” says Mercer, whose efforts have gone beyond Achilles Reserve to help in other areas along Shoal Bay.

Another volunteer based at Achilles Reserve, Anne McMillan, found the ecological hikoi with Bailie informative on ways to keep trees alive once they are planted.

“I think what’s important to us is improving the habitat for birds,” says McMillan.

Restoring Achilles Reserve is a part of the Ngataringa Watershed project, a peninsula-wide programme that supports local-community and school-volunteer efforts to maintain wetlands and waterways leading to the estuary in Ngataringa Bay.

Devonport-Takapuna Local Board member Trish Deans also joined the hikoi. One of her takes from the event was to utilise board funding for regular maintenance at all of the reserves on the peninsula, which would also support the heritage of specific sites.

Long-time volunteer Georgina Greville has been working at Paddy’s Bush on and off for several years. Greville works as a nurse at Middlemore Hospital, but she has always had an interest in plants, having grown up on a farm. In 2011, when she first moved to Bayswater, she remembers going to a community clean-up day at Paddy’s Bush when volunteers dragged out discarded mattresses, an old hut and other rubbish.

Now, Paddy’s Bush has had an extension of its forest area, and bait lines laid for pest control, as well as the weed removal.

This winter, a lot of planting has been done at Paddy’s Bush, establishing a range of plants from coastal grass to totara, rimu and puriri trees. “I love volunteering because it’s a way to get the community together and get that experience of working with native trees and plants,” says Greville.

Over the next four months, Paddy’s Bush will need more volunteers to maintain it all. The newly planted trees will need to be watered over summer. Last summer, some were lost over the dry months. Greville says invasive weeds, like morning glory, will regrow.

The trust is preparing to launch a Million Metres streams project campaign across the peninsula, in cooperation with the Sustainable Business Network, to raise funds for restoration projects. One of its promotional initiatives will allow people to buy a native tree to give to someone as a Christmas gift, for planting next year.