Author
Chris Rance

Southland NZERN Edition No. 1 March 2003

Welcome to the first edition of the NZERN Southland Newsletter. It is envisaged these will be published twice a year to catch up with groups around Southland who are involved in restoration of native habitats.


The New Zealand Ecological Restoration Network (NZERN) came about from the energetic group of people who began with the restoration of Addington Bush, Christchurch. Mike Peters, a main driver of that project, saw real value in networking with others so that everyone wasn't repeating the same mistakes, making revegetation work even harder than it is. NZERN evolved from this basis and has now gone NZ wide, with the NZERN website
( www.bushorg.nz ) being a major part of the information sharing process.

There is an Otago-Southland branch of NZERN and Chris Rance (Southland Community Nursery, Otatara, ph 213 1161) and Gay Munro (QEII National Trust, Mokotua, ph 239 5827) are the southern most representatives for NZERN. Edith Jones, from Manapouri, spends part of her time in Southland and the rest in Christchurch. She has played a major part in setting up the Planterguide on the website, aimed at assisting people with the choice of plants they might use suitable to the environment they are working in and also some propagation tips.

Another goal of NZERN is to assist people involved in restoration through field days and workshops. NZERN Southland is planning two field days in the next few months.

The first is an Open Day on Friday 4th April, at the Southland Community Nursery, Otatara, with a workshop in the morning taken by Chris Rance, on collecting and propagating natives from seed. From 10am, bring your lunch. The afternoon session will focus on pest control looking at the pest plant, grey willow, and the animal pest, the stoat. There will also be discussion about the Biodiversity Condition Fund and how locally we are looking at getting best value from that central government funding source.

The second field day will be a Bus Trip on Saturday, 7th June, to tour some restoration sites and hear about the work being done out in the community. This trip will visit Te Wai Korari, Riverton; McGregor Park, Nightcaps; Te Waiau Mahika Kai Trust, Jericho; Redcliffs Wetland; Home Creek, Manapouri; Dave Milligan Park, Dipton.

In the spring it is hoped to have a day trip around Invercargill restoration sites.

Please find enclosed with this newsletter the invoice for this year's Subs for NZERN. We hope that you will feel it is worthwhile being a part of this group with the thought that there is strength in working together and learning from each other as we all work towards the same goal of restoring our native ecosystems.

We would also appreciate feedback on the following list of Restoration Projects that we currently have listed for Southland. Any corrections or additions gladly accepted. We need a contact person, phone number, email, address, project description, commencement date and photos for each project.


INVERCARGILL :
Andersons Park (ICC, North Invercargill Rotary); Bluff Road Beautification (Men of the Trees); Bowmans Bush (QEII, ICC); Bushy Point Restoration Project (Otatara Landcare Group [OLG]); Bushy Point (B & C Rance); Bushy Point Educational Boardwalk (I & J Gamble); Kew Bush (Southern Health, QEII, Invercargill South Lions Club, YMCA Cons Corp ); Otatara Scenic Reserve (ICC, OLG, Otatara School); Sandy Point (ICC); Thompsons Bush (ICC, St Johns Girls School, Invercargill Sunrise Rotary, Mature Employment Group); Phillip St Reserve (Envirosouth, YMCA Cons Corp); Waihopai Dam (Envirosouth [ES], local intermediate schools, McDonalds); Waihopai Wetlands (ES); Waihopai Floodbank (Men of the Trees, ES) ; Waihopai Walkway (ES); Tikore Island (ICC, Invercargill North Rotary); Te Rau Aroha Marae, Bluff (G Young).

WESTERN SOUTHLAND :
Te Wai Korari/Jacobs River Estuary (Riverton Estuary Care Society); McGregor Park (E Peneha);
Rakatu Wetlands (Waiau Habitat Enhancement Trust); Jericho (Te Waiau Mahika Kai Trust).

NORTHERN SOUTHLAND :
Home Creek Restoration (Waiau Trust, E Jones, Forest & Bird); Upukerora Wetland (Waiau Trust ).

CENTRAL SOUTHLAND :
David Milligan Park (Men of the Trees) ; Heatherlea (M McKenzie) ; Kowhai Reach, Kauana (R England, L Wilson, Southland District Council [SDC], Limehills School, QE II) ; Ivy Russell Reserve, Winton ( ? ); Taringatura Camp (Camp Committee); Sherwood Forest, Tussock Creek (P & D Turnbull, QEII, ES); Glenure Hill (Balfour School, SDC).

EASTERN SOUTHLAND :
Charlton Wetland (R Hargest, D Dodds, Mataura School).

SOUTHERN SOUTHLAND :
Gorge Road School & Domain (Gorge Road School, Gorge Road CDA, J Kevern, G Munro); O'Neil Block, Titiroa (ES, QEII, local schools, YMCA Cons Corp) ; Te Rere Yellow- eyed Penguin Reserve (Forest & Bird); Munro Wetlands, Gorge Road & Mokotua (R & G Munro); Waituna Creek riparian plantings (Waituna Landcare Group); Waikawa Estuary (SDC, ?).

OFFSHORE / STEWART ISLAND :
Ulva Island (DoC, Ulva Island Conservation Trust); Centre Island/Raratoka (Te Runanga O Oraka Aparima).

Community Nursery News - March 2003

Autumn sees the Community Nursery full of plants - in fact we have all but run out of room! We estimate that there over 6000 plants sitting in the nursery, many waiting to be planted out soon. The majority of these plants belong to the groups and individuals who use the scheme, pot up their own plants, help weed them and, when big enough, take them away for free.

The Community Nursery is privately run by Chris and Brian Rance and some of the bigger projects supported this year have been Otatara landcare Group's Bushy Point project, Otatara Golf Club project, QEII Trust kowhai Reach project, Environment Southland's O'Neills Block project and Forest and Bird's plants for schools project. Recently we hosted 120 children from Waikiwi School at the nursery. Each child potted up a kowhai seedling and learned a little about native plants and the nursery before departing for a bush walk on Gambles Boardwalk. It was great to see the children's knowledge and enthusiasm for nature.

Summer has been a particularly busy period at the nursery for weeding and watering. All work at the nursery is done on a voluntary basis, so if you have a spare hour or so on a Friday and can lend a hand I'd be pleased to see you, but please ring first either on Thursday evening or before. I will be seed collecting around our property over the next few months so if you are interested in learning about this aspect of plant growing, come to the April Open Day or give me a ring. I will also be having some "cuttings days" in June/July - this is the best time to grow native plants from cuttings. At other times we welcome group visits by prior arrangement

Chris and Brian Rance (213 1161)

Photos Are you keeping a photographic record of your reveg project? We would appreciate a photo to put on the website with your project if possible.

Keywords
NZERN 

Updated 21/11/2008 4.12AM by PIPI4