Members of the Kerikeri Shadehouse Team and Friends. |
Dear Friends,
We had a visit from members of the Kerikeri Shade House - a volunteer group who grow native plants for conservation projects such as ours at Bream Head. They are pictured here at the Urquhart Bay end of the Reserve with their leader, Rod Brown, fifth from the left. They are standing in a forest of young trees which they had propagated from seed three years ago.
At the back and second from the right is Wendy Holland. Wendy is one of our Restoration Committee members (she also works for DoC) and plays a major role in collecting seed from the Reserve, giving it to the shade house volunteers to germinate and prick out into pots as seedlings, and collecting the seedlings for planting days. Behind and just to the left of Rod is Geoff Pike, one of the Bream Head Conservation Trustees and Chairperson of the Restoration Committee. Geoff writes our Xmas Newsletter below but I’ll urge you to take what he says with a grain or two of seasonal salt.
Best wishes
David Monro
Hello Everyone,
David Monro prompted me to put a few ideas together for our last news letter for the year. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to polish David’s halo while he wasn’t looking and thank him for the huge contribution he makes to our organisation.
Besides the news letters that you all receive, David also writes a column for our local paper to raise conservation awareness in our area.
He has produced a booklet of information for potential funders and supplemented this with a 15 minute DVD which takes the viewer on a journey around the Reserve; it explains that in order to achieve the highest level of ecological protection we need to put in place a predator proof fence.
These items are no small undertaking and we are so grateful that we have someone of David’s skill level and attention to detail. He’s not bad behind the camera either - almost all the photographs were taken by him.
So well done David, we really appreciate you!!
The Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE) is passing through its final stages as I write, and will become a public document early next year. It will be close to 100 pages when finished and after peer reviews are complete, represent a balanced and independent assessment of our proposal which we can be proud of. My thanks go to all who have contributed to it.
On Thursday of last week we had a very pleasant few hours with the volunteers from the Kerikeri shade House. These are the people who propagate the plants that we put back into the Reserve. How satisfying it was to be able to show them their seedlings from 4 yrs, 3 yrs, 2 yrs and last year, all looking healthy and vigourous.
Wendy Holland and Nigel Miller have been the driving force behind the plantings, but special thanks to the Shade House team at Kerikeri, for their care and generosity. They will be producing 18,000 seedlings this year - that’s an awful lot of pricking out for a group of volunteers.
I have saved a last thank you for the Whangarei Native Bird and Forest Protection Society who have supported us all along and this year donated $4000 towards our fence project. The Society is under the careful stewardship of Miss Marge Maddren. She has been an absolute stalwart for conservation during her long life and we are honoured to have her support.
Finally, the last word from me goes to you all. Thank you for your continued support, for your patience, and thank you for you loyalty. Sometimes the longest way round is the shortest way home, and since conservation is a very long venture it is bound to take a little longer than I would like; but the important thing is to keep going in the right direction.
My very best wishes to you all
Kind regards,
Geoff Pike
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