12 May, 2021

Pest patrol: Residents making a difference in reserves

“I had no idea of the extent of the problem in our parks,” says volunteer weeder Michelle Morrison.

As a member of the Friends of Henderson Park group, the Takapuna ratepayer has been helping to tame pest-plant growth along the north-eastern edge of Lake Pupuke. She decided to dig in after gaining an insight into the problems through her involvement with the Pupuke Birdsong Project and its predator-control efforts.

“It’s obvious the council is not effectively maintaining our public green spaces,” Morrison told the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board at its latest community forum.

She came to the monthly session with a message that more resources were needed for the project’s environmental co-ordinator and for the wider battle to keep both plant and animal pests in check.

Morrison is one of hundreds of environmentally aware residents who are quietly championing reserves across the local board area. The number of volunteer groups in reserves in the north of the board area (from Takapuna to Sunnynook) has grown from nine to 25 in just over a year.

School and work groups are among those helping by adopting a reserve. Some garden, others set traps for rats and a few have possums in their sights (read other story).

From pocket parks to larger reserves, community-minded people are pitching in to make these more appealing places for native birds and for people to enjoy. Gaps in the network of reserves that are cared for by volunteers mean more helpers are always wanted.

“There is just too much to do,” Morrison told board members. She is one of a four-member group, including husband David, tending to Henderson Park.

The quartet put in 30 to 40 voluntary hours a month. They tear up ivy, trim back bamboo and root out pesky Chinese windmill palms in the hope of getting these invasive species under more control so council contractors can better maintain the public spaces.

“Pest plants should not have been allowed to get this bad,” Morrison told board members. Just that morning, the group had removed 10 smaller palms. There were hundreds more to deal with around the lakeside reserves, including lots at the bottom of Pierce Rd in Milford.

It did not make sense, said Morrison, that the council could spend on additional planting, yet was not properly controlling the spread of what was already there.

Along the lake, at the larger Sylvan Park, more volunteers regularly toil away. A new area of focus is the adjoining and lesser-known Kitchener Park reserve, home to the Milford Tennis Club. It can be accessed from a path that runs between Pierce Rd and Dodson Ave.

The Milford Residents Association arranged for surplus nikau palms to be transferred to a glade there, and now Rotary members are mulching and helping with a tidy-up.

Milford Residents’ Association co-chair Norma Bott, who also attended the community forum, called on the board to push for the council to improve the Kitchener Park path and to cut back growth on fences along it.

Improved park entrances and signage acknowledging that the land with established native trees had been gifted by early resident William Rushbrook would emphasis its history and separate identity from Sylvan Park, she said.

Residents wishing to donate a park bench in memory of a loved one might consider the park, she said, given that Milford Reserve had been over-subscribed with such requests.

Both women’s reports were received, with board thanks for their efforts. “We have heard you,” said member Trish Deans.

Morrison was told provision for more funding for the work of Takapuna North’s environmental co-ordinator, Fiona Martin, was included in the board’s yet-to-be-signed-off work plan. Kitchener Park was “on the list for maintenance”, an official reported, but meeting chair Aidan Bennett cautioned Bott it would remain a challenge for the board to get extra funding from the cash-strapped council for any new projects.

“The more we get people on board [to help] the more we exercise our own responsibility in our area or backyard,” said member Toni van Tonder.

For voluntary helpers such as the Morrisons, this is what they do already, but Michelle told the board: “While it is satisfying to see what we have achieved, there is a fine line between the goodwill of volunteering and the expectation that volunteers will carry out tasks for which the council is actually responsible.”

Anyone wishing to find out more can learn about the Pupuke Birdsong Project at www.takapunatrust.org.nz or email about volunteering to enviro@takapunatrust.org.nz

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