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Ecology Action on a Fringe-Urban Hillside |
If all would lead
theirlives in love like me,
Rich man, trust not in
wealth,
The towering presence of trees Will inspire lofty thoughts.
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Updated 18 March 2009 Noticeboard and Ongoing Activities Events
Three Streams Friends meet and
select Plots Saturday and Sunday mornings. With over 500 young agathis australis planted here since 1970, singly and in groups, in stream valleys and on ridges, Three Streams is a rare and valuable demonstration and study site for this iconic species within an urban area. This is quite different from the protected old forest remnants elsewhere in Auckland and North, one of which is in adjoining Kauri Grove, upstream. We are seriously concerned that one of our young kauris may have been attacked by the phytophera disease newly discovered in some areas and now being studied by Government, Regional and NGO scientists; we await a lab.report from ARC. TANE'S TREE TRUST -www.tanestrees.org.nz is an important source of information on indigenous forest trees, especially Kauri. A world without trees Strong, straight and tall Is really a world With nothing at all free native plant propagation mini-workshops A new series of bite-sized workshops has been launched by the Kaipatiki Project. Aimed at up-skilling volunteers, the Nursery Bites programme of 14 mini-workshops is a great way to gain work experienceand learn at the same time.for those wanting to gain practical, hands-on experience in native plant propagation or working in the nursery field.. Sessions are free as part of a volunteer/work experience programme funded by the Auckland Regional Council’s Environmental Initiatives Fund.Nursery Bites has been designed so that participants can take the whole series or just select the topicsthat interest them, from how to collect seeds, make plants from cuttings, pot on, grow native trees, irrigate and hand-water through to dealing with weeds, and nurturing threatened plants, ferns,wetland and riparian plants. Sessions are limited to 20 participants a week so bookings are essential by calling 482 1172 or emailing restoration@kaipatiki.org.nz with your name and contact details and which week/s you will attend. For a detailed list of topics and dates, check out the back page for the Nursery Bites calendar. Kaipatiki Project is one of Auckland’s most pro-active environmental organisations— to inspire communities to live sustainably. Kaipatiki Project 17 Lauderdale Road Birkdale North Shore 0630 Phone 482 1172 Email restoration@kaipatiki.org.nz 12/2 Seed collection, seed sowing, eco-sourcing. 19/2 Potting on tubes to planter bags, irrigation/ hand-watering 26/2 Weeds identification, organic weed control,nursery stock, plant placement 5/3 Potting on seedlings to tubes12/3 Ferns—growing from spores, identification Nursery Bites - a different topic each week in a mini-workshop. Choose one, severalor be greedy and get your teeth into the whole programme! Thursday mornings 9am-12pm AN ALBANY COMMUNITY PROJECT Here we have nearly 5000 ha of greenfields converted within ten years into a thriving, growing residential, and light industrial area with a modern well serviced commercial and cultural centre. The New Zealand Trust for Conservation Volunteers (established 1998) sees the newly developed Albany urban area as a unique opportunity to demonstrate the value of co-ordinated community participation in the protection and improvement of our living and working environment. Careful planning has protected 89 listed parks and reserves to ensure that everyone living and working here has ready access to open space for a high quality of life. Many of these are quite small, but local, some are bare from development, while others still contain thriving remnants of native trees and shrubs and opportunities to improve and increase such amenities. These latter need community support for early results, because Council resources can only contribute essential maintenance for several years. Only four reserves have an organised group of volunteers at present. Whether or not you live or work near a reserve where help is needed, you can join in a programme which directs resources into an accessible area with an active project
ALLOW REGENERATION -AND A DREAM
For many modern people,a garden is a personal statement. It shows the owner's relation with the Earth like a wardrobe shows the wearer's relation to society.
The explosive growth of the gardening business suggests a popular dream, the dream of nature and culture growing together. . Evan Eisenburg (1998:177)comments that, "for some people, that is what paradise is: a small piece of the earth's surface that can be made over to match our dreams."
Perhaps that is the most practical thing most of us feel able to do with the Earth- to beautify whatever plot of land we can call our own. If a dedicated gardener was to make a vision statement, it might read like this: Ï want the place I live in to be green and beautiful. When I leave this place, the ground will be more fertile than when I came. Year by year I will make it richer and more beautiful here because it pleases me."
If such sentiments sound familiar, pehaps it is because they echo the attitudes of traditional villagers around the world.
BIGGER OPPORTUNITIES: Our public gardens are called parks, be they yard-sized city flower beds or regions of protected forest. The old conservation movements tried to fence off chunks of wilderness. They presumed, from experience, that humans were natural enemies of nature and would destroy it completely unless halted by a higher authority.
By the 1990s about 3.2per cent of the world's land was enclosed in national parks. But when traditional conservationists focus on saving the wilderness, they tend to overlook two bigger possibilities for saving the planet. The first larger opportunity lies simple in lowering our defenses against nature and reducing our efforts to suppress its regeneration.
For example, over the past century or so, the overgrazed grasslands of North and South America have been sprouting a new cover of tough, thorny, cow-resistant plants such as mesquite trees with cactus. As these hardy thickets of mesquite have spread, many landowners have undertaken a difficult and expensive war to suppress them.
-The Possible Ecological Age, Brian Griffiths,2001.
Check this space often for notices from these groups and others: The National Trust The QE11 National Trust as the country’s statutory protector of private land is not committed to the exclusion of the huge number of introduced species that have been planted in gardens and on farms all over New Zealand since Europeans arrived here . While some purists may disagree, our biodiversity has been enriched – which does not reduce the importance of maintaining all we possibly can of New Zealand’s unique indigenous biodiversity, especially where it is still in a virgin state. The over 2500 properties which now have covenanted areas with the Trust include virgin, exotic and mixed vegetation, often on the same site. One of these covenants is the notable Eastwoodhill Arboretum near Gisborne which claims the largest collection of Northern Hemisphere trees to be found South of the Equator.
For up-to-date NZ conservation news, visit
Conservation Volunteering To check on programmes and opportunities for volunteering in New Zealand and overseas, go to: www.conservationvolunteers.org.nz Are you involved in revegetation projects? Are you one of the hundreds of property owners with QEll covenants? Please let us know the first five plots at three streams -pick yours1
ENTRANCE TO THREE STREAMS
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