Events: Urban Ark – Manawa Taiao

The Waitakere Range Alliance are putting on their own Pestival this Sunday 6 November. We’re honoured to have been invited to give a guest presentation, to share stuff we’ve learned about supporting and co-ordinating the efforts of community conservation groups. There’s a great lineup of speakers and workshops, so come along if you’re in the area.

The venue opens at 9.30am for registration and coffee, and the programme starts promptly at 10am.

Group: Urban Ark – Manawa Taiao

Urban Ark and Healthy Waters are reviving the Waititiko community meetings which used to happen pre Covid. They were a great way of connecting people active along the awa: groups, contractors, schools, marae, council staff, contractors and others involved with improving native biodiversity.

This is the first of the meetings, now covering the whole catchment.

Location: Auckland Zoo. Go to the main entrance and there will be signs or flags from there.

Purpose

1. To connect groups working along the length of Waitītiko / Meola Creek. Although various introductions have been made, it still feels like better integration could make groups more effective.

2. To come up with broad plans for action along each section of the creek.

3. To consider if there is enough of a unified strategy and plan to approach Foundation North or similar to fund further work.

Proposed outline

1. Introductions (25min). Just 2 min per group: name, who you represent, main work so far, aspirations for the next year and beyond

2. Intro to Waitītiko (5min). STEPS (or Urban Ark) to do a quick overview of the stream and its importance.

3. Headwaters (10min). Discussion around issues and activities upstream from Roy Clements Treeway. Probably led by STEPS. Possible support from Pest Free Sandringham.

4. Roy Clements Treeway (15min). Discussion around issues and activities from Roy Clements Treeway and the underground section to the pipe outfall at Norgrove.

5. Norgrove, Chamberlain and around (15min). Issues around the golf course.

6. CRC to WSC (15min) Issues along the section immediately downstream of the motorway (BlueGreens) down to Western Springs College

7. Te Mahurehure to the sea (15min). Kanuka St Lava Forest, MOTAT land, Te Tokaroa.

8. Funding further work. (15min) Discussion around seeking funding for unified plan.

Groups: Pest Free Pt Chevalier, STEPS, Pest Free Gladstone, Urban Ark – Manawa Taiao, Conservation Volunteeers NZ, Pest Free Sandringham

Due to heavy rain, this event has been posponed. We are looking for a suitable time to run the event.

This freshwater quality testing refresher course is also appropriate for complete newbies. Healthy Waters (who are running the event) will run through the basics then concentrate on how to identify macroinvertebrates.

To hopefully find a wider range of inverts to ID we’re moving location to the wetland in Roy Clements Treeway. If you’re driving, you can park in Morning Star Place and walk through to the wetland.

When: Monday 28 November 10am–11.30am

Access: check out a map here. You can walk / cycle along Roy Clements Treeway from Fergusson Reserve or from Alberton Ave. Probably the handiest parking is at the end of Lyon Ave (see photo) from where you can walk through a passage, turn left and be at the meeting point in 5min. You can also walk through from the St Lukes Megacentre, beside Noel Leeming.

Parking on Lyon Ave

Groups: Urban Ark – Manawa Taiao, STEPS

Michelle Brindson from Eastern Bays Songbird Project has kindly agreed to give a short talk on the successes her trapping group has achieved to date and the role of bird monitoring within their overall project aims. She’ll follow this with a demonstration of how to conduct a 5 minute bird count in the Gribblehirst bush (adjacent to the meeting venue). We’d love to get as many people conducting bird counts in the Urban Ark area as possible, so feel free to bring/send along any keen members of your group who would like to start learning this skill.

The meeting is mainly for group leaders. Please RSVP if you’re coming and let us know if you’d like to invite anyone else from your group.

We’ll also be running our peanut butter refillery: bring a container and we’ll fill it up with bait free of charge.

Group: Urban Ark – Manawa Taiao