Urban Ark – Manawa Taiao supports over a dozen community groups dedicated to improving the native biodiversity of the inner west of Tāmaki Makaurau.
Most groups focus on trapping pest mammals – mainly rats, possums and stoats – in people’s back gardens, through there are also groups working in local reserves. Some groups concentrate on removing pest weeds and planting native species, while others advocate for landscape taonga such as our local maunga, and awa such as Waitītiko / Meola Creek and Te Auaunga / Oakley Creek. Many groups support all these strands.
We need your help:
- Check out our Join a Group pages to see where you can lend a hand.
- If you represent a group in the Urban Ark area that’s not included here, just drop us an email and we’ll add you!
- If you want to set up a new group, please let us know. We’ll help with whatever we can.
Probably the single most effective way to help native biodiversity is to reduce the number of rats, possums and stoats. There are plenty of ways you can support our vision for a making the inner west of Tāmaki Makaurau predator-free and come alive with native birds, lizards and invertebrates. Check out our Predator Control pages, which also include links to controlling wasps and hedgehogs.
Without predators, our native wildlife has a chance to flourish, but it will always struggle if the bush is smothered by invasive plants. Our Pest Plants pages give advice on what to remove, how to do it, and which groups concentrate on weeding and planting. Pest plants soon fill the vacuum left by weeding unless something else is planted in their place. Planting natives is the way to go using locally sources seeds where possible.
In Auckland, two-thirds of our habitat is in our back gardens. You can help a lot just by looking after your patch. Visit our Back gardens page to see how you can best manage your patch for our native species.
Our neighbours
Just as Urban Ark – Manawa Taiao is made up of a number of volunteer groups, Urban Ark works with neighbouring organisations under the umbrella of Pest Free Auckland 2050.
- Eastern Bay Songbirds Project is doing wonderful work across the eastern bays of Tāmaki Makaurau from Orakei to Glendowie.
- Pest Free Kaipātiki runs a sophisticated operation on the North Shore between Northcote, Beach Haven and Glenfield.
- Whau River Catchment Trust are working towards a pest-free Whau catchment from Green Bay and Blockhouse Bay to Te Atatu.
- Maungakiekie Songbird are encouraging residents around One Tree Hill and Cornwall Park to trap predators and encourage native biodiversity.