The first official A ROCHA E NEWS letter has arrived in your mail box. It’s not SPAM so don’t delete yet!
We’re hoping this E NEWS will provide you with quick updates from our National Office and a chance to catch up and share local news around Aotearoa NZ. A printed version of our newsletter will be produced a few times a year. We thought that with so much happening it would be great to send you brief updates more regularly - while reducing our printing and paper costs at the same time. Hope you enjoy!

It’s SPRING! YES! Where did winter go? This year several A Rocha local groups used the wintery months to gather local enthusiasts for their annual planning meetings/camps - providing a forum for brainstorming and discussions as well as a chance to get out and do some tree planting and visit other local environmental projects for inspiration. If you want to find out more contact our local group leaders or the national office for more information.

On a more sobering note - we want to remember and pray for our friends and families in the Bay of Plenty area struck by the REMA disaster. We hope to support them in their clean up work this coming weekend.

A Rocha is growing and developing so much… inspired by God’s love and his amazing creation. We want to continue the work we do and grow and build on our existing activities nationwide. We’d love to hear from you – and stories from your own backyard are gratefully received.

Thanks so much for your support and friendship,
Aroha

Kristel
National Director

We've recently been having a lot of fun developing the Te Kaakano community gardens together with Desert Spring Ministries in Hamilton. The gardens, situated near Fairfield, provide a neat place for families to grow their own food, while also learning new cultivation skills and perhaps also a little more about caring for our environment. A planning Hui with all whanau and partners involved in the gardens has helped generate some new ideas and there is alot of enthusiasm for the new developments underway this year. The veges are growing so quickly now that its spring time! And we have received a grant from Hamilton City Council to build a composting toilet on site. We've also received some funding from Trust Waikato to keep the gardens ticking along. A big Thank you to both our funders and to all the wonderful whanau and young people that come and do mahi at the gardens each week! We get together every Friday morning and Second Sunday of the month. Everyone is very welcome to join us. LOVE to see you there!
 
 

Battling icy westerly gales on St Martin’s Island on the Dunedin harbour, amidst beautiful blue skies and bush and views of the sea, members from the newly established Dunedin branch gathered to share dreams and plan. Bruce Hammill shares "This was another part of God’s mission that we were in together. To be part of something that matters is to be part of the love of God. More than that it is to participate in the love of God, the purposive love of God for it all. This has profoundly emotional aspects to it. To be a disciple of Jesus is to be set free to love the world, rather than merely use it. It is to be set free to love the detail, rather than simply organise it around our own agenda and control. It may be important to see the wood as well as the trees, but the trees are to be delighted in, in their own right."

Community-based monitoring on Mount Karioi

One Monday morning I found myself with Kristel van Houte and a group of students from Raglan Area School (pictured above) in Upper Wainui Reserve on Mnt Karioi checking pest monitoring stations. Like those kids, I usually spend my days behind a desk. And like the students I was excited to be outside, walking through the forest, finding monitoring stations and interpreting the foot prints inside the monitoring tunnels.

Kristel invited me to come along to see how A ROCHA is incorporating the monitoring of rat numbers in efforts to restore Mount Karioi in Raglan. Monitoring of pests is only a small part of the restoration of Mt Karioi. It is, however, an important aspect to understand the results of their ongoing efforts to eradicate rats, stoats and possums on the mountain.

I became involved through my research on community based environmental monitoring through the University of Auckland. Monitoring is an important step in understanding and learning from our environment. It creates the stories of what is working, what is not working so well, and gives ideas on how to do things differently. Community-based monitoring combines the benefits of creating (scientific) knowledge with action by communities. Just as ecological restoration is much more than ‘putting trees in the ground’ or ‘eradicating pests’, restoring Mt Karioi is about learning, sharing, developing networks understanding our role and responsibilities. That was clearly visible while monitoring rat numbers with the students.

Petra van Limburg - Meijer

 

Trust Power award for A ROCHA in the Manawatu!

Congratulations to the Manawatu Team who recently received a Trust Power Award for their Native Tree propogation project.
Awesome work and a big thank you to all the wonderful volunteers that help out every second Sunday at the nursery.

We also received this cool letter from a young student called Jonas who visited the nursery recently. He wrote;

"Dear A ROCHA, You may not remember me but me and my family came and helped you prepare seedlings to be planted a few months ago and to thank us you generously gave us a Whau seedling. A few weeks later we used the Whau as the centrepiece in a series of tests that turned into a winning science project. This project went to the Manawatu Science and Technology fair and won the prize for the best overall board and received a high distinction. Thank you for your generous gift."

Awesome work Jonas!
 

Want to find out more about whats happening locally? Check out our website http://www.arocha.org