Nature never fails to amaze, and Franklin Local Board is pleased the funding it allocates to the environment is being put to good use.
Highlights include funding EcoQuest and Predator Free Franklin to find new endangered long-tailed bat (pekapeka tou roa) populations, work that found activity over a wider area than anticipated, and evidence of inanga spawning at Lees Gully Road, a site helped by the board’s Waterways Protection Fund.
Waiuku Zero Waste recycling hub continues to be successful, now a model for other boards wanting to create similar centres, and an extensive programme of coastal renewals including seawalls, boat ramps, wharves and waterfront erosion, continuing.
Te Ara Hīkoi ordered $17,000 worth of predator control supplies that continue to be distributed at community hub days and to landowners with biodiversity focus areas.
Evidence of inanga spawning has been found at Lees Gully Road, a site helped by the board’s Waterways Protection Fund.
Last year the group also collaborated with Predator Free NZ to host predator control workshops in Hunua and Waiuku, adding to its work at three other hub days, and its research into better trapping systems was recognised with a Mayoral Conservation Award.
Board deputy chair Alan Cole says people’s interest in the environment continues to grow.
“More people are aware the environment has to be nurtured, and that we can’t continue to do the same old things that have left us with uncertain climate conditions, less tree cover, native forest being lost and so many other issues.
“We are grateful for the volunteer time that goes into enhancing Franklin’s environment. Te Ara Hīkoi, Friends of Te Wairoa, the kids who turn up at planting days and beach clean-ups, the farmers and businesses open to change, these are all things taking us forward.
Jobs for Nature kaimahi Analisa Rawiri (Ngati Tamaoho) and Te Aka Pahi (Waikato Tainui/Ngai Tai ki Tamaki) with Friends of Te Wairoa members at the March hub day at Hunua Village Market funded by the board. Photo: Poppa G's Pictures.
“The message continues to be spread with Predator Free Franklin holding conservation education and pest days in Ararimu, Beachlands, Pukekohe and Hunua Village, something that enabled the distribution of traps and bait directly to the community.”
More than 2,200 people subscribe to the group’s newsletter, about 2,000 traps and 3,700 bait stations are registered on Trap.NZ, and more than 20,000 pests have been removed.
Cole says the challenge is now one of moving from growth in community participation to maintaining a model that can support those already involved, because there is more demand than can be resourced.
Friends of Te Wairoa supporters alone have bagged more than 5,000 possums, 4,000 rats, 4,100 rabbits, 1,500 mice, 289 ferrets, almost 50 stoats, a dozen weasels, and an alarming 144 feral cats since 2018.
It is not just pest prevention that is flourishing. Waiuku Zero Waste has begun collaborating with local iwi and attended the Wasteminz conference, advising members of the Tongan Waste Authority, and was also presented as a successful model to councils in the wider Wellington region.
There were also hundreds of people at repair and workshop events, groups investigating bike repair centres and ongoing work in schools, a junk play activation in Pukekohe town square and the Pukekohe Sustainability Expo returned, attracting almost 300 visitors, the many stallholders including Predator Free and Auckland Council’s Wastewise team.
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