A significant portion of time this month has been spent driving long-term commitment to landscape scale pest management across an Albany halo.
Upper Waitematā pest manager Louis Foot, supported by Les Wootton, experienced trapper and resident at The Landing, envisaged a trapping halo across Centurion Reserve, Burnside, Fernhill, Rosedale Park, Clemows Orchard, up the eastern boarder of Lucas Creek from Kell Park to beyond North Shore Golf Course, and throughout Unsworth Reserve.
A schools-led model was devised, supported by local businesses, to own traplines that are funded by Auckland Council and instated by Louis and Les. Incredibly Rangitoto School and Kristin School have committed to running three traplines between them. To support schools’ endeavours, three businesses, Forbes Packaging, Gurit and Quinovic, have taken on the challenge and now own their own lines in Burnside Reserve and North Shore Golf Club.
We welcome families, other schools, and businesses to join the wider team to establish a significant trapping programme to protect biodiversity and promote canopy cover growth in our rohe.
For now, we celebrate and thanks our trapline owners for their courage and commitment to te taiao. We hope to align plant pest management, water quality testing, and planting natives with the animal pest management across the Albany Basin. Working in partnership with iwi, Council, NGOs, the education, sports and business sectors and local people will enable positive outcomes including the opportunity to mitigate climate change and develop healthy ecosystems that can thrive.
In addition to the own a trapline model, Te Hōnonga a Iwi achieved the following actions and outcomes:
- New business investor Global Signage Concepts responded to a request from Liam, one of our fantastic youth activators, for support with signage to enable us to present our model and actions in forums and conferences. Matt Behrent was quick to support offering us tear-drop and upright banners and posters. The organisation’s significant contribution to Te Hõnonga a Iwi resulted in a number of people coming to us at the Sustainable Business and Nature Symposium. We appreciate the ability to showcase our mahi and the chance to offer education to the communities we serve with the collateral. Huge thanks Matt and the team at Global Signage Concepts.
- We started August with the dream team Park Ranger Theo Jaycox, plant specialist Nicholas Mayne, freshwater ecologist and Mountains to Sea member Amy Sadler and Louis, pest management specialis,t visiting Te Hono to check out a 150m2 wetland shelf that was a surprise for us as we continue to clear the 2024 restoration site.
- Local Chinese gardeners united to plant out the old bioreactor strip, reinstating Hilton Brown Swimming’s carpark boarder. The gardening team were extraordinary with the speed and finesse of their work, planting 250 natives in under two hours. Each native was cared for and planted with expertise. We celebrate older adult knowledge and skills at Te Hōnonga a Iwi. This group of skilled gardeners are fantastic people who add value across many green spaces on the North Shore. They are inspirational and we thank them for their important mahi. Thank you.
- New youth leader George, Rangitoto College reached out to us, asking if his robotics group could undertake working bees each Thursday after school to help. Team members come from Rangitoto, Pinehurst, Long Bay College and Kristin to work on site. Their team just won the world robotics competition and there is no doubt they’re winning against weed management at Te Hono too! We thank George for his vision and the team for investing in nature with us.
- Busy Bees Rosedale walked their three to four-year-olds 1 km to the site, and home again, to plant natives and sow cover crops. Our youngest contributors are our most important people. We hope they can come to us, enjoy being in nature and feel that they belong. The ECE teaching team pulled out all the stops to guide tamariki and show them what they can do to support environmental health. Outstanding leadership from the education sector. Thank you for your commitment and vision to be a part of mitigating climate change.
- The Gurit trapline team had their first education session in Burnside Reserve. The bush in the reserve is special and we recommend you take time to walk into the area and enjoy its natural beauty when you have a work break. Gurit is an international company who are in the business of renewable energy. What they are doing at working bees and with their trapline enables the organisation to walk their talk. We know that their commitment to decarbonise, mitigate climate change and promote biodiversity matters to their staff and customer pipelines as well as the planet. Great leadership from the Gurit team who are founding members of Te Hono.
- Wilson School continues their weekly working bees with us. The students are focussed, joyful and hard working. This month they have sown cover crops and made seed bombs to throw across the 2022 restoration site. Thank you for your positive energy and accomplishments.
- Huge thanks to all our educators, especially lead teachers, who squeeze in connecting to Te Hono within heavy workloads. The difference educators make can be measured intergenerationally and directly contributes to the physical, social and mental wellbeing of young people and the health of the environment they grow up in.
- Te Hōnonga a Iwi continues to develop a new model for connecting with new community members in newly developed suburbs. We hope to work with iwi and development companies to support land and water-based biodiversity to flourish in new subdivisions from inception, or as early as possible to manage pest animals and plants and promote health ecosystem management. By doing so we hope that our newest community members feel included, informed, connected and able to contribute value within their place they have chosen to belong.
- The Kristin Girls Premier Hockey team made their fifth visit to Te Hononga a Iwi, trialling planting in the new area ahead of 80 Kristin Year 8 students arriving to finish planting a stormwater pond and surrounds in September. The hockey girls are experienced planters now and ripped into getting 50 new natives in within an hour. Outstanding leadership. Thank you, please take time to celebrate your off-turf achievements, the legacy you leave is substantial. We hope that you will continue to come next year!
- Te Hõnonga a Iwi continues to attend UWEN steering group, Rail Trail (Banded Rail and trapping) and plant pest monthly meetings. Investing in UWEN’s strategic planning has been rewarding and important for Te Hono as we ensure alignment of our work with Council and Ecological priorities.
- The Sustainable Business Network continue to connect business with nature-based solutions. We look to SBN for national leadership within this space and gain huge value from attending their webinars and events. The site visit to Pouwera, the gardens and nursery at Ngāti Whātua Orakei was inspirational. The leadership team there welcomes people to come and learn their permaculture and regenerative agricultural methods and cultural practices that enable massive investment in the Orakei Basin and the people who need good food support. Thank you SBN for bringing business and nature-based NGOs together to amplify positive change across the motu.
- Park Ranger Theo Jaycox arranged to meet with an arborist to determine if the Shea Oak boarder could be removed and replanted with natives to prevent further wilding of the exotic species within the restoration following Ventia’s removal of 300 plants. The arborist confirmed it was not appropriate to remove the oaks for several reasons. Our focus will turn to managing prevention of the oaks from encroaching again.
- Speedy Signs, another new business investor, has kindly printed our new 3D model in an upright banner as part of their investment into Te Hōnonga a Iwi, enabling us to share the model with schools and at forums. Thank you, Speedy Signs, for helping us educate our community.
- Nicholas Mayne continues to support our development with ongoing guidance and sharing expertise regarding planting natives or harvesting seeds.
- Te Hononga a Iwi works in partnership with other restorations within the Upper Waitematā. This month we were able to collect natives from the Paremoremo Prison Nursery to support Herald Island to plant banksia on a steep coastal slope. This is one of countless examples of the strength and culture of our local ecology network, led and connected by UWEN, to enable growth at scale and pace. Belonging to networks that offer expertise, local knowledge and contacts and demonstrate a willingness to help has been crucial for our development.
- A new trapline extending from The Wharf at The Landing to Kristin School has been scoped and traps ordered. This is a fantastic, easy track, particularly suited to young people or older adults. If you or your organisation would like to ‘own’ this special trapline along the border of Lucas Creek, please contact Nicky on hello@restoringrosedalepark.org.nz . We need to move quickly to support The Landing trappers to protect Banded Rail and inanga spawning grounds in that stretch of Lucas Creek.
- We welcomed 20 Westlake Boys to their first working bee at Te Hono this month. The work was guided by youth leaders Ceinwen and Lachlan from Rangitoto College. Together the team shifted 700kgs plus of plant pests that had been harvested to the bioreactors for composting. This cleared space for another 70 natives to be planted this year! It’s hard going hand clearing land that hasn’t seen the light of day for 70 years. We appreciated the hard graft of this team and hope they will return soon.
- New youth activator, Mariko, Kristin School is beginning her search for a sponsor for land-based and underwater filming equipment we need to observe pests above and below water at the restoration. If your company can support this development, please contact us on hello@restoringrosedalepark.org.nz. We hope to create our own fish doorbell to get a sense of life underwater at Alexander Stream and track animal pests within the restoration.
- We collected the seeds that youth leader Olivia, Rangitoto College had harvested and grown across the year to transplant with the Kristin Year 2 team. It wasn’t easy to remove the seedlings from Olivia’s nursery. She has invested a lot of time and effort over a year to nurture new natives. It is a special moment for us to be transplanting our first seed whakapapa natives in readiness for planting in 2025. Thank you very much Olivia for your mahi.
- Huge thanks to the Kristin Year 2 team for their ongoing commitment to the seed whakapapa model, with all three year 2 classes spending a morning transplanting new seedlings into pots and caring for them until Christmas.
- David, youth activator, Kristin School, managed to capture interest from a local IT company to invest in Te Hono’s online capability and communications platform. Thanks so much David for the hours of work you have put into leveraging this fantastic result!
- The Trees that Count 2025 application has been achieved this month in readiness for planting next year.
- Our plant and animal pest teams, and seed whakapapa team continue to work weekly at the restoration. Thank you all for your ongoing commitment to the cause.
- We have secured a team ready to undertake the annual bittern count at North Shore Golf Course.
- We secured education opportunities for members through Auckland Council.
- We released our 3D model this month, please use it and enjoy sharing it. It is the result of months of work by graphic designer Samantha Weston and journalist Sheryl Blythen. Thank you both for producing this amazing model that enables us to showcase all our actions and impacts!
- UWEN has linked us with an amazing volunteer, Shaleen, who is prepared to support Sheryl to produce news articles. Welcome aboard Shaleen! We know we are lucky to have someone of your calibre working to produce content to share with our communities.
Thank you all for your incredible mahi. What a mighty month of action.
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